Rally, Repair, and Reparation
by sycoandcrazy.inc
Summary: Sequel to Night at the Museum. DISCONTINUED. See profile for more info.
1. Chapter 1

Vice President Darren Ward felt weary relief as he deposited his suitcase in his hotel room. He'd been up for nearly twenty-four hours now, and he was ready for some much needed sleep.

He still wasn't sure if he believed the frantic reports that the Japanese government had sent to the other countries. Chikao Taisho, world renowned business man, wasn't human? Not only that, it seemed there were more of these nonhuman creatures running around.

If all of this was true, and Darren was certain the Japanese officials truly thought so, then what exactly did that mean for the future security of the world? How was this going to affect people?

"Sir?"

"Yes, Edwin?" Darren asked. Edwin was Darren's aide, a loyal and hard worker, with a few skill not found in most aides.

"I've been looking into Taisho Corporation's business records," the young man informed him. "What I've found is somewhat…alarming, sir."

Darren raised one eyebrow. "Well, what is it?"

"Sir, based on what I've found, I believe that if Chikao Taisho is incarcerated and his business liquidated, then…well, sir, America's economy will collapse."

Darren stared in disbelief. It was easier to believe that humans were not the only form of intelligent life on the earth than it was to think that the fall of one man could cause any country's economy to collapse, let alone America's.

"That's ridiculous," Darren said. "It isn't possible for one man to have that much economic power. Besides, the man isn't even an American citizen."

"I know, sir," Edwin replied. "But Taisho owns a piece of just about every American business, not to mention quite a bit of land. But it's more than just America's economy. Sir, if his business goes under, the whole world's economy will fall apart."

Darren snatched the stack of papers from Edwin's hands and looked over then frantically. Impossibly, horribly, each page confirmed Edwin's words.

"But…this isn't possible," Darren sputtered. "How could one man, one man, do all this, and no one have any idea at all? It should take hundreds of years to do something like this."

Edwin cleared his throat, a sure sign he was about to say something else that Darren wasn't going to like. "Well, sir, it is claimed that Taisho isn't human, correct? Perhaps he had hundreds of years to do it."

Darren stared at Edwin. It was becoming increasingly clear that he needed far more information than he had right now. However, even if he could get it tonight, he wasn't sure he'd be able to process it.

Darren rubbed his temples as a headache began to start. "Edwin, I need to sleep. I'll decide what to do about this information in the morning. What time was President Glenn arriving?"

"She will arrive at precisely ten o'clock," Edwin responded.

So, that gave Darren about four hours to sleep, and then one hour to get ready for the day. "Thank you, I'll see you in the morning," Darren said and Edwin left the room.

Just how was Darren supposed to explain this economic crisis to Cathleen Glenn in the morning? She'd expect him to have some kind of solution too, or at least some suggestions.

_Come to think of it, three hours of sleep and two hours to prepare for the day might work out better._

* * *

Sesshomaru opened his eyes when the door to his cell was unlocked. He made a quick head count of the guards outside. Only six. These humans were sorely underestimating him.

However, Sesshomaru wasn't here to try and kill them yet. First he would see if he could convince the countries to try and settle this peacefully. The most important countries were China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Those five countries were the only permanent members of the United Nations, and where they led the other countries were likely to follow. But how was he to convince them that a peaceful resolution would be the best one?

"Come on, buddy, it's time to go," one the guards said.

Sesshomaru stood and took a step towards the guards. It amused him when almost as one they stepped back from him.

They cuffed Sesshomaru and escorted him to an armored vehicle. It took around two hours to get to their destination, and Sesshomaru remained silent the whole time, wrapped up in his own thoughts.

By now Shippo would have joined Inuyasha, and hopefully they would have started the hunt for the jewel shards. It was imperative that they get them before Naraku did. It was entirely possible that Naraku would ruin any chance for peace that the yokai might have with the humans.

"We're here," one of the guards said when the vehicle stopped. They opened the door in the back and Sesshomaru climbed out. They were inside the lower level of a building. The six guards from before surrounded Sesshomaru again and led him through the winding halls. Sesshomaru could hear the noise of people arguing long before they entered the room where delegates from most of the world's countries sat.

Silence fell as Sesshomaru stepped in the room. The guards led him to the middle of the room where there was a lone chair for him to sit in. Sesshomaru scanned the room as he settled in his chair, noting the exits, the placement of guards, and where each of the world leaders was sitting. If necessary, he was certain that he could escape from this place, though it wouldn't be without harm to himself. He was also certain that if it came down to it that he could take out most of the humans here as well.

"Well," said a woman that Sesshomaru quickly identified as Cathleen Glenn, current President of the United States. "Now seems like a good time to get answers to some of our questions." She sent a piercing stare Sesshomaru's way. "First, how old are you exactly?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Sergey Petrov, the Russian representative. Sesshomaru couldn't help but agree with the man's sentiment; the question didn't make any sense to him either. What was Cathleen Glenn looking for with that?

It couldn't hurt to answer though. It took a moment of thinking for him to come up with the answer. "Eighteen hundred, give or take a few years."

Most of the humans gaped at him. Glenn managed to keep her composure, but only barely. "That explains a few things," she muttered.

Just what did it explain?

"How long have you been in charge of the other, yokai, was it?" she asked before any of the humans could respond.

Sesshomaru let his face crease into a slightly deeper frown. How did they know he was the leader? They were probably just assuming. "Yokai, elves, fairy folk; what we're called depends on where you're from." Humans were less threatened by something they were more familiar with. "I have been the leader for seven hundred and eighty nine years."

"Give or take a few years?" she asked dryly.

"No," Sesshomaru said. He wasn't completely certain of his age, but he knew exactly how long he'd been the leader.

"President Glenn," said William Cunningham, the United Kingdom's representative. "I assume that you have a point to your line of questions?"

"My point," she said, switching her stare from Sesshomaru to the other humans in the room, "is that he's not a threat."

…Wait, what?

Sesshomaru drowned out the upset yells of the humans to contemplate this unexpected turn of events. He hadn't even had to try and prove that the yokai meant no harm. Cathleen Glenn was backing him of her own accord. But why? Sesshomaru sincerely doubted it was out of the goodness of her heart, or some other idealistic junk like that. Sesshomaru tried to keep tabs on human politics and knew enough about Glenn to know she was a shrewd and ruthless politician. If she was so easily defending yokai there had to be something in it for her.

_She said my age explained a few things._

Suddenly, it clicked. Glenn knew about the economy. It was the only explanation. Sesshomaru had expected them to find out, just not nearly this soon. She was standing up for the yokai not to protect them, but to protect her own people. She saw Sesshomaru's survival as necessary to America's, and so was taking steps to insure that he would survive.

Sesshomaru felt a grudging admiration for her, but then, he always approved of leaders who did whatever necessary to make sure those under their charge were taken care of.

"She has a point," said Akihiko Ito, Japan's representative.

Everyone else shut up when he spoke. "How so?" asked Cunningham.

"If Taisho is to be believed," Ito said, "then he was their leader since twelve hundred and twenty one. If they had wanted to take over, then they would have had a much easier time of it then."

"If he is telling the truth," Fa Chang, China's representative said. "How do we know he isn't lying?"

"He's telling the truth," Glenn said. "He has to be."

"And why is that?" asked Petrov.

"Because there is no other way that one man could have control of the world's economy," Glenn said. She spoke quickly to avoid any other outraged shouts. "If you don't believe me, look into his business records. If he goes down, every country's economy will go with him."

The silence was almost accusatory, as if to say, "So that's why you wanted to protect him."

"Even if this is true," Petrov said, "it only makes him more dangerous. Besides, we've all seen an example of the destruction just a few of them are capable of."

"About that," Ito said. "Who was it that attacked you? I am assuming of course that you didn't destroy your own building."

Sesshomaru considered how to answer. This meeting wasn't going at all how he had expected. "His name is Naraku. He is a psychotic half breed, bent on world domination. He was thought to be dead five hundred years ago."

There was a murmuring among the crowd again.

"And why did he attack you?" Ito pressed.

Sesshomaru didn't plan on telling the humans about the Shikon Jewel; at least, not at this point in time. "I am the one who tried to kill him five hundred years ago," Sesshomaru said with an indifferent shrug.

"Did you kill him this time?" Glenn asked.

"He escaped," Sesshomaru said. His pride didn't like to admit that, but if the humans underestimated him, he could use that to his advantage.

"Do you think he'll attack the rest of us?" asked Cunningham.

"Eventually, yes," Sesshomaru said. "It is possible he will sway some yokai to his side, and humans as well. I and mine will not join him."

"Perhaps," Glenn said, "it would be best for us to discuss this matter in private for now."

Sesshomaru glanced over at the woman, and for a moment, she met his gaze. She gave him the barest hint of a nod before the guards escorted him out of the room and to another cell. For now at least, she would be Sesshomaru's ally, of that at least, Sesshomaru was certain. Whether or not she would be successful Sesshomaru didn't know.

* * *

AN-Welcome to the sequel of Night at the Museum. Just a note, this one won't be quite as focused on Inuyasha and Kagome as NATM was. I'll be switching between Sesshomaru and Inuyasha since this story is going to have a lot to do with the politics side of the whole situation.


	2. Chapter 2

"So," Kagome asked, "how are we supposed to find the jewel shards anyways?"

"Actually," Shippo said from where he was lazing on the couch, "since your powers have awakened, you ought to be able to sense it."

The teens, as well as Shippo and Inuyasha, were gathered in Kagome's living room for a sort of planning session.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Kagome asked.

Shippo shrugged. "I don't know. Never really had a priestess or monk explain it to me. I just know that they can feel it."

Kagome pursed her lips as she thought. How was she supposed to recognize the pull of a jewel shard? "I don't remember sensing it when Sesshomaru had it," Kagome said.

"Sesshomaru was hiding it," Shippo said. "Naraku will probably be able to hide it as well. However, I doubt anyone else who gets a hold of one will be able to hide them, especially since it's likely that most of them are going to be found by humans who won't even know what the shards are."

"Do you think that some of the shards will have landed in the reservations with the yokai, though?" Miroku asked.

Shippo nodded. "Probably, but I don't think that those will be hard to get back. They know that the jewel belongs to Sesshomaru, so they'll give the pieces back."

"I wonder," Sango said.

"What do you mean?" Shippo asked with a frown.

"Well," Sango said, "it's just that I can't think they'd be too happy with Sesshomaru right now. I mean think about it. Sesshomaru's pretty much forced them to live in these reservations with no contact in the outside world for hundreds of years. I don't know about everyone else, but I'd be feeling pretty resentful. If I found a jewel shard, I might use that to make sure I could live wherever I wanted."

"That won't happen," Shippo said. "They know that it's important to stay on the reservations, especially right now. If they tried to leave the reservation now they could cause a war between humans and yokai, and that would be bad for everyone."

Kagome thought Sango made a good point, but she hoped that Shippo was right. It wouldn't be too hard to get the shards away from humans, but yokai were another story altogether.

Just then the phone started ringing. "I'll get it," Mrs. Higurashi called.

"Since we have no idea where to start looking," Miroku said, "perhaps we should just start wandering around the city and country side to see if we find anything unusual, or perhaps Kagome will sense something."

"Not the greatest strategy," Shippo sighed, "but I'm afraid that for now, it's probably the best we'll get."

"Kagome, Eri is on the phone for you," Mrs. Higurashi said.

"I'll be back in a sec guys," Kagome said and got the phone from Mrs. Higurashi in the kitchen. "Hello?"

"Oh my gosh, Kagome, you have to turn on the news," Eri said. "I almost can't believe it!"

Kagome went back to the living room and flipped on the TV, though she had a feeling already as to what it would be saying.

The news anchor stared solemnly at the audience. "That's right people, you heard me. The government is reporting that humans are not the only intelligent life form on earth. Yokai do exist.

"We don't have much more information than that. We do know that yokai were the cause of the collapse of the Taisho building, but we do not know why, and rumors that Chikao Taisho, the owner of Taisho Incorporated, is a yokai remain unconfirmed. Apparently, the UN is meeting to decide what should be done about the existence of the yokai."

"Kagome can you believe this?" Eri asked. "Yokai are real? This has to be some kind of a joke, right?"

"No," Kagome said. "I don't think it is. I'm sorry Eri, but I have to go."

Kagome hung up the phone in its cradle in the kitchen before heading back into the living room. Shippo had sat up on the couch and was frowning. "Huh, so people know now."

"Does that mean you won't be disguising yourself as a human anymore?" Kagome asked.

"Of course I'm going to keep disguising myself," Shippo said. "Humans only just found out. I can't count on them being okay with seeing me in my real form."

"I suppose not," Kagome said.

"I wish we knew how Sesshomaru was doing ," Miroku mused. "It would be nice to know where what the different countries are planning to do."

Inuyasha sighed noisily from where he was leaning against the wall. "Enough chatter already! We need to start looking for the jewel shards!"

"Er, Inuyasha is ready to start looking for shards now," Kagome said.

Shippo stood and stretched. "We might as well. We're not getting much done by sitting around here."

They left the house and climbed into Shippo's car. "Where to first?" Shippo asked as he started the car.

"Might as well drive anywhere," Sango said. "We have no idea where we're going after all."

"Be sure to let us know if you feel anything strange," Miroku told Kagome.

They had driven around the city for almost an hour when Kagome felt a strange tug. It was like a string was attached to her heart and someone was tugging on it. It wasn't painful, but it was slightly uncomfortable.

"I think there's a shard nearby," Kagome said.

Shippo whipped the car into the nearest available parking space, in front of an old antique shop. "We probably won't need our weapons," Shippo said, "but we'll take them just in case. First though, let me disguise them."

Shippo pulled leaves out of his coat pocket and wrapped one around Miroku's staff, Sango's sword, and Kagome's bow.

"I don't see a difference," Sango said.

"You aren't supposed to," Shippo said. "But anyone else who sees you won't be able to notice the weapons."

They all climbed out of the car then. "Which way to the jewel?" Inuyasha asked.

"I think the jewel is in that store," Kagome said, pointing at the antique shop. She didn't notice until after she'd spoken that she'd interrupted Shippo, but he just shrugged, so Kagome figured he was probably just going to ask the same question Inuyasha had.

They went inside the store and found it to be a surprisingly spacious and organized place. Most antique stores Kagome had been in before tended to be crowded, and nothing was in any certain order.

"Welcome," called a cheerful voice. A woman came out from behind a shelf of books holding a large box. Kagome was slightly surprised to find that the woman wasn't Japanese at all, but American, or perhaps English. She was tall with short strawberry blond hair and wide hazel eyes. She looked to be in her upper twenties at most, but had a youthful air that made her true age somewhat uncertain.

"Can I help you find anything?" she asked.

"First, ma'am, you must let me assist you," Shippo said with a dashing smile as he relieved the woman of her box. "Where would you like this placed?"

"On the counter will do nicely," she said.

Shippo set the box down carefully were the woman had directed. "Now that you've helped me, what can I do for you?" the woman asked.

"Actually, I'm looking for a particular type of jewel, and I was wondering if you might have one," Shippo said.

While he was talking, Kagome was glancing around the room, trying to see if she could get a fix on where the shard was.

"Have you found it?" Inuyasha asked quietly from her elbow.

"I'm looking," Kagome whispered in reply.

"What sort of jewel?" the woman was asking Shippo. "We have some, but gems and jewelry isn't the shop's main focus."

Kagome's eyes kept getting drawn back to the woman, and Kagome wasn't sure why until she took a good long look at her. "It's in her pocket!" she hissed to Inuyasha.

The woman's eyes snapped over to Kagome instantly. "You're new at this, aren't you?" she asked.

"Wh-what?" Kagome stuttered.

"You never talk about what you're looking for in front of the person you're planning to steal from," the woman said with a sigh.

"We're not planning to steal from you," Sango protested.

"Aren't you?" the woman asked, raising an eyebrow. "Or are you just carrying those weapons around for kicks and giggles?"

Wait a second; she wasn't supposed to be able to see those, unless Shippo's spell had failed. But if it had, and she could see their weapons, why wasn't she panicking?

"Just who and what are you?" Miroku asked.

"Now that would be telling," she said. "As for the jewel, I'm not giving it to you. You aren't ready for it."

Shippo took a menacing step forward. "I think we'll be the judge of that. Now hand it over, or else."

The woman just smirked. "You won't kill me, kitsune."

_How does she know he's a kitsune?_

Before Shippo could respond, it seemed as though a dart grew from Shippo's back. He collapsed instantly, and Inuyasha lunged at the woman. She ducked and caught him with a sharp uppercut to the chin, causing Inuyasha to jerk back in shock. Before he could gather his wits, she nailed him in between the legs and jumped over his prone body.

Finally, the others got over their shock and started to react. Miroku started to raise his staff, but the woman was on him instantly. Kagome and Sango rushed to help, but suddenly a man they hadn't seen before was between them. Grabbing each of the girls' arms, he used their own momentum to slam them into each other, causing stars to burst in front of Kagome's eyes as she fell to the ground.

By the time Kagome's vision cleared, both of them had disappeared. "I'm going to kill her," Inuyasha snarled, finally pulling himself off of the ground.

Kagome took stock of the situation. Miroku and Sango seemed to be about in the same shape she was, and Shippo was only just starting to wake up.

"Well, that went well," Miroku said, holding his side.

"How did they do that?" Sango groaned.

Shippo pulled the dart out of his back with a grimace. "I'd like to know that too." He sniffed the dart and then threw it. "That dart is specifically designed to knock out yokai. If they'd hit a human with it, they'd be dead. "

"She could see Inuyasha," Kagome said. "How could she see Inuyasha? No one can see him but me."

"And she shouldn't have been able to see the weapons either," Shippo said. "Or see through my disguise."

"Looks like we have more enemies than just Naraku," Miroku said.

"Yeah, we do," Shippo agreed, eyes flashing.

Kagome, however, wasn't convinced. The woman and her partner had had a perfect chance to kill all of them, but they hadn't. Besides, the woman had said she wouldn't give them the jewel because they weren't ready for it, not that she wouldn't give it to them at all, and after this display, Kagome couldn't help but wonder if she was right.

* * *

Krista held tightly to the armrest of the car as Saito floored it. He always drove faster than she was comfortable with, though in this case it was probably necessary.

"That," Saito growled, "was possibly the stupidest thing you have ever done."

Krista managed a weak smile, and pointedly did not look at the speedometer as she turned her head towards Saito. "It had to be done; I needed to See them."

"You do realize we'll never be able to beat them that easily again," Saito snapped. "They'll be ready for us next time."

"I hope so," Krista replied.

Saito glanced at her sharply.

"Eyes on the road!" Krista yelled before he could ask anything.

Saito looked back out at the road obediently. "Explain."

"Look, we don't know too much about this jewel yet, but we do know it's powerful, it's connected with the yokai, and probably with what happened at the Taisho building," Krista said. "Given what Taisho told the UN, I'd say that this Naraku fellow is also after the jewel. The kitsune and company are likely Taisho's team to collect the jewel, but other than the kitsune and hanyou, they're weak. There's no way they'll be able to protect the jewel as they are now."

Saito grunted. "I suppose this hanyou is the invisible man you were grappling with."

"That'd be him," Krista confirmed. "He's under some kind of curse."

"So," Saito asked, "what do you propose we do about this group of wanna-be heroes?"

Krista closed her eyes; it was easier to handle Saito's driving that way. "We're going to need them eventually; in the meantime, we're going to make sure they get stronger."

* * *

Koga shed his human guise as he stepped onto the reservation. One thing he liked about the reservations was that on them, he could be himself. Unfortunately, this freedom wasn't going to last long. While Shippo had been ordered to help Kagome and Inuyasha find the jewel shard that had fallen into human hands, Koga had been ordered to collect the shards from the reservations, something that shouldn't take all that long.

"Hakaku, Ginta, get everyone together," Koga ordered. "I'll need to explain the situation to everyone so we can find any jewel shards that landed here fast."

"Sure thing, Koga," Ginta called as he and Hakaku dashed off.

Koga headed over to the most commonly used meeting place, a long field of grass with a large boulder at one end that could be used to elevate the speaker above everyone else. Koga hopped on top of the boulder and waited. It would take a little while for the yokai in the reservation to gather together.

_I wonder how things are going on Sesshomaru's end. I hope he'll convince the humans that war isn't necessary…_

It was frustrating, not knowing what was happening. At least he'd be able to check up on Shippo, but until the humans released Sesshomaru, there was no getting in contact with him. All they could do was try to collect the shards and stop Naraku, while hoping for the best.

A breeze brushed by him, causing Koga to focus on what was before him. He was just in time to, for at that moment Ayame appeared and threw a punch at him. Koga caught her fist and threw her back over his head. Ayame twisted in midair so she landed on her feet.

"Koga you jerk! How could you just leave like that without even saying goodbye to me?" Ayame growled.

"I'm not required to say goodbye to pests like you," Koga snapped, his eyebrow twitching.

"But Koga," Ayame started.

"Don't say it!" Koga growled.

"We're betrothed!" Ayame finished.

"We are not!" Koga snapped. "We were kids when I made that promise, so it doesn't count!"

"Well, isn't this a lively party?"

Koga glanced back and winced. Yokai were starting to gather, and the ones that were in the field had probably heard everything he and Ayame had said. Not that their relationship issues were a secret at this point anyways, but it was still embarrassing to be observed during one of his and Ayame's fights.

"Shut up, Yura," Koga snapped to the yokai woman who had spoken. "Ayame, go wait with everyone else."

Ayame looked like she wanted to argue, but thankfully, she decided against it. It took almost half an hour for everyone to gather, and Koga waited until he saw Ginta and Hakaku return before he finally addressed the crowd.

"Okay, everyone, listen up!" Koga said to get their attention. "Some big things have happened on the outside that everyone needs to know about. First off, Naraku is back."

That statement alone set off muttering throughout the crowd. Koga raised his voice a bit to make sure they'd all still hear him. "Naraku has already attacked Sesshomaru in an attempt to steal the jewel. He failed, but the jewel got broken during the fight and the pieces were scattered. If any have landed in this reservation, we need you to turn them over so Naraku can't get a hold of them."

He hesitated a second before delivering his last piece of news. "One other effect of Naraku's attack is that the humans know about us now."

This set off a roar of commentary and questions. "Quiet!" Koga yelled to get their attention. "Sesshomaru's dealing with the UN, and hopefully he'll be able to settle things peacefully and strike some sort of deal, but just in case, you all need to be aware of the situation."

There were lots of voices clamoring for attention after that, but one rose above the rest. "And just what kind of deal is the great and powerful Lord Sesshomaru trying to get for us? Permission to keep cowering in our little reservations?"

Silence fell at the mocking words, and Koga focused his attention on the speaker. She was a white tiger yokai, with black and white hair, ears and tail, pale skin, and frosty blue eyes. She was young enough that Koga hadn't met her yet, but old enough to have reached maturity. More than likely she'd been one that had been born on the reservation.

"You got something to say, kitten?" Koga asked with narrowed eyes.

"Yes, I do," she said, hopping up on the boulder to stand beside Koga. "I say Sesshomaru is weak! When the humans first began to grow in number and power, what did Sesshomaru do? Did his crush them under his heel and prove the dominance of yokai over humans? No, he ran and hid! He locked us away like vermin, cowering before the humans. And now look what's happened! The Shikon Jewel, which Sesshomaru was supposed to protect, has been broken! Is he really a leader we should be following?"

The girl was a charismatic speaker, her voice almost hypnotic in quality. Koga found himself agreeing with some of her points. Sesshomaru had hidden from the humans, and he had lost the jewel. Was he really as powerful as they all thought he was? Perhaps they would be better off with a different leader.

"We shouldn't wait for the humans to decide to try and kill us all. We should do now what Sesshomaru was too frightened to do a long time ago! We will attack the humans first! With our strength, we can be the rulers of the world!" she cried, and the crowd cheered at her words.

Sunlight glinted off of a stone set in the choker the girl was wearing, catching Koga's eyes. It was a fragment of the Shikon Jewel. The sight snapped Koga out of his stupor. Anger rushed through him, and he realized that the jewel fragment must have had something to do with the hypnotic quality of her speech.

The crowd was chanting her name now, "Isia! Isia! Isia!"

_Screw this,_ Koga thought. He threw a punch that Isia barely managed to dodge, effectively silencing the crowd. "Give me that jewel fragment you've got," Koga said, "and I might not tell Sesshomaru you were trying to start a rebellion against him."

Isia laughed. "Please! As if I'm afraid of Sesshomaru! I am the one that's going to kill him for his weakness." She looked back at the crowd. "Now is the time to choose! Will you follow me, who will lead you to freedom, or will you follow Sesshomaru, who wants to keep you locked away?"

To Koga's horror, there was an uncertain murmuring in the crowd. "Don't be stupid!" he yelled. "A war with the humans will only end in a blood bath on both sides! At this point it's a war that everyone will lose!"

"Looks like you are as much of a coward as your master!" Isia mocked.

Koga felt sick as yokai moved to back Isia. Soon the crowd was split.

"Well?" Isia asked, smirking. "Still want to fight me?"

Koga glanced behind his back. There was Ginta, Hakaku, Ayame, and precious few others. If they attacked Isia, and all the yokai with her, they'd be slaughtered, there was too big a difference in their numbers.

"Run, mangy wolf, and I'll let you live for now," Isia said.

Koga grit his teeth. He wanted to rip the smug little brat limb from limb! But now wasn't the time. "Let's go," he said to his small group of followers. Hating himself every step of the way, Koga turned tail and ran.


	3. Chapter 3

Cathleen Glen marched purposefully down the hall, shadowed by two Secret Service agents. This debate had been dragging on for three days now, and it seemed to have the potential to drag on far longer. However, reports that Cathleen had gotten from her special agents combined with what Taisho had told the UN about Naraku made Cathleen want to end this as quickly as possible. Unless she was mistaken, there was a good chance humans and yokai were going to need to be able to work together in the near future, and she had a feeling that Taisho knew this was the case.

With all this in mind, she was preparing herself to do something that had the potential to be political suicide, but first, she wanted to speak to Taisho. They hadn't spoken to him since that first day, and before Cathleen did anything rash, there was more information she wanted from him.

Although, if Cathleen were to be totally honest with herself, she'd have to admit that she was curious for more than just political reasons; she was curious since as far as she knew, Taisho was the first intelligent non-human life form she'd ever met and she wanted to know more about him. All records she'd found of him were vague at best. For a public figure he'd been remarkably private, so next to nothing was known about him personally.

_Though if my sources had found anything, it probably wouldn't have been all that accurate anyways, considering what he's been hiding._

She finally made her way through the twisting halls to the cell where Taisho was being kept. Four guards were stationed outside the door, and they immediately snapped to attention when she came into sight. Cathleen walked up to the nearest guard and said, "I want to speak to Taisho."

The guards exchanged uncertain looks. "I don't believe that's allowed, Ms. President," the guard finally said.

Cathleen raised an eyebrow, giving the man a look that had withered statesmen, reporters, and her younger sister countless times before. "Do you really want to try and stop me?"

To the guard's credit, he was able to hold her gaze for longer than most could, but Cathleen still got the satisfaction of causing him to look away. "No ma'am," the guard said. He walked over to the cell and unlocked the door.

Cathleen allowed the Secret Service agents to enter first, she had learned the hard way her first few weeks in office that the agents would _always_ go first in case of danger, whether she liked it or not, but she followed closely on their heels.

Taisho was sitting cross legged on the cot in the cell, his eyes only halfway open as he watched them. There was nowhere else to sit, so Cathleen stood where she was, studying him. Privately, Cathleen had to admit that she was impressed by how big he seemed. It wasn't that he was extraordinarily tall; though he was taller than Cathleen, she had seen plenty of men taller than Taisho. He just had a way of seeming to loom over everyone in the room even when he was sitting down. That impression was probably helped by his alien appearance. His long silver hair almost seemed to shimmer in the light, framing delicately pointed ears and a chiseled face that had an aristocratic look to it, and the strange facial markings only seemed to highlight that fact. The hands resting on his knees had long, elegant fingers that were tipped with dangerously sharp looking claws, and a small part of Cathleen wondered if he'd ever used those claws to kill someone.

Finally, Cathleen met Taisho's eyes. They were the color of molten gold and completely emotionless. With his eyes half closed as they were, he almost looked lazily at rest, but Cathleen wasn't fooled. As unnerving as it was to think, she was certain that he'd been studying her just as intently as he'd been studying him.

"You know, it's really not fair," Cathleen mused. "You've been stuck in a jail cell for days, and your hair is still prettier than mine."

Cathleen was pretty sure she heard a choked sound from one of the guards outside, but her own agents kept perfectly straight faces, having gotten use to Cathleen's mode of questioning someone. She would say something or ask a question that seemed totally random before getting to the heart of what she really wanted to know. More often than not, this led to the person Cathleen was questioning revealing more than they had meant to once they were flustered or confused.

Taisho just blinked. If that was the biggest expression of surprise she was going to get from him, Cathleen's usual tactic might not work.

"Is Chikao Taisho the name you were born with?" Cathleen asked. This was something she'd given thought to, considering how much longer he lived compared to humans. It only made sense that while pretending to be human he'd wind up using different fake names.

"No," he said, but he didn't elaborate further.

_Is he really going to make me ask? Yes, I think he is._

"What's your real name then?" she asked.

"Sesshomaru," he replied.

Sesshomaru…it was a strange sounding name, but then, most Asian names sounded strange to Cathleen.

_Course, American names probably sound strange to them…_

"What kind of yokai are you?" Cathleen asked.

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow. "Have you been researching?"

"Not really," Cathleen replied. "I just heard someone mention there was more than one type of yokai, so I wondered." A half truth, but true nonetheless.

Sesshomaru's eyes bored into her, and Cathleen wondered if he knew she was keeping something back. "I am a dog yokai," Sesshomaru finally said.

"Huh, you don't look like a dog," Cathleen mused, earning another blink from Sesshomaru. She wondered how many times she could get him to do that.

_Unfortunately, this is not the time for mind games, no matter how much I love them._

"I was wondering if you'd tell me how many yokai are in America," Cathleen said.

Sesshomaru said nothing, but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

"I'm not asking so we can threaten them," Cathleen said. "But if I'm going to convince Congress to accept the presence of yokai, I do need some details."

He seemed to consider her words. "Around one million."

_One…million?_

Granted one million was a small amount compared to the total population of America but still…to have successfully hidden one million people was an astounding feat. There was no way he should have been able to hide that many people for hundreds of years. Where had he hidden them, and what kind of technology had he used to keep them secret? Or had he used technology? Remembering some of the reports that she'd gotten, they could have used some sort of magic.

"Where do you keep that many people?" Cathleen asked.

She wasn't surprised when Sesshomaru didn't answer. Instead, she decided to make guesses and see if she got a reaction out of him. "I doubt you have them all together in one place, that'd be to noticeable. I'd say there are probably some in Alaska, and in the deserts of the Mid-West."

Not a flicker on his face. No, he definitely wasn't going to tell her where they were. She'd have to wait for that. But there were other things she needed to know.

"What exactly are you hoping will be decided here?" Cathleen asked.

"I would wish that yokai would be able to leave the reservations and live amongst humans as equals," Sesshomaru said firmly. "I would settle for us being left alone to survive on the reservations."

"You should add a 'for now' to that sentence," Cathleen said, smiling slightly. "Somehow I can't see you settling for anything."

It could have been Cathleen's imagination, but she thought she saw the corner of Sesshomaru's mouth twitch up in a smile (or was it a smirk?) for just a second. It made her wonder what his face would look like if he smiled for real.

_Eh, he shows so little emotion; his face would probably crack if he smiled._

"Living together as equals," Cathleen mused aloud. "I think that's something I can approve of. There is one more thing I'd like to know right now. How much of a threat is Naraku going to be?"

"That depends on how long it takes to stop him," Sesshomaru said. "If he is left to his own devices for any length of time, he will become very dangerous. Right now he will be somewhat weakened, if he can be found."

_If he can be found…Luckily, I know just the girl with the eyes to find him._

"That's all I need for now, though I'm sure we'll be talking again soon," Cathleen said. On impulse, Cathleen stepped forward, ignoring how her Secret Service agents tensed. She held out her hand for Sesshomaru to take. "It's going to be interesting working with you," Cathleen said.

Sesshomaru eyed her hand, and then glanced into her face. Slowly, he reached up and took her hand in his. "Indeed."

* * *

After Cathleen left, Sesshomaru leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking about what had just happened. He hadn't expected a visit from anyone, to be frank, and what a strange visit it had been.

Sesshomaru wondered if it was a habit of Cathleen's to make totally unrelated statements. After all, what did the condition of his hair have to do with anything? And obviously he didn't look like a dog right now; he was after all in his humanoid form.

Strange or not, Cathleen was his best ally in this fight, not that he really had any other human allies at the moment. But even if she was his ally, Sesshomaru got the feeling she was withholding information from him. Granted he was also keeping information from her, but Sesshomaru didn't like being out of the loop in anything, especially something this important.

_It looks like she doesn't completely trust me yet. Understandable, as I do not fully trust her either._

Right now, all he could do was what he had been doing the past few days; wait, and hope.

* * *

"Mr. Jaken, I'm hungry."

Jaken looked at the strange human child Lord Sesshomaru had adopted. Rin stared at him expectantly waiting. "I suppose I can make you a sandwich," Jaken said.

Rin smiled and headed to the kitchen. Jaken followed at a slightly slower pace.

Jaken didn't understand what on earth had possessed Lord Sesshomaru to adopt a child, much less a human child. It didn't make any sense whatsoever. Jaken wasn't even certain if Lord Sesshomaru liked children.

At least Rin hadn't proved to be much trouble. She was remarkably well behaved; perhaps her only real failing at the moment was her tendency to be easily intimidated, and her nearly unceasing worry about Lord Sesshomaru, which reminded Jaken of another strange thing. Rin hadn't been at all bothered when he explained that neither he nor Lord Sesshomaru were human. The part that had upset her was the fact that Lord Sesshomaru was being held captive.

"Here you go," Jaken said, setting a plate in front of Rin.

"Thank you, Mr. Jaken," Rin said before digging into her food.

Jaken was about to make himself some food as well when the doorbell rang. Jaken frowned. He wasn't expecting anyone today. "Stay here, Rin," Jaken said.

He went to the front door and opened it. On the door step were an official looking man and woman, both human, neither known to Jaken. Jaken scowled. This did not bode well. "What do you want?"

"We've come to collect Rin," said the man, flashing a badge. "Under the circumstances, it has been decided that it is unsafe to leave her here."

They wanted to what? This was not acceptable! Jaken might not understand why Lord Sesshomaru had adopted Rin, but the fact remained that he had, and if Jaken let these humans take her away heads would roll, Jaken's among them.

Jaken thought quickly, and said, "This is outrages! You have no right to take Rin away from here."

"We have every right if we think there is a chance of her being harmed," the woman said.

Jaken was sorely tempted to kick her for insulting his and Lord Sesshomaru's honor in such a manner, but he managed to restrain himself. He stepped back to allow the humans inside. "Very well; her bedroom us upstairs. Make a left, and her door will be the last one on the right."

Both humans went upstairs, and the moment they were out of sight, Jaken rushed down the hall and to the kitchen. "Hurry Rin, we have to go," Jaken said while grabbing her hand. He had never been more thankful that the kitchen had a door that led out into the backyard.

"What's going on?" Rin asked as Jaken pulled her to the garage where they climbed into one of Lord Sesshomaru's vehicles; it had been modified so that Jaken could use the pedals.

"They're trying to take you away from Lord Sesshomaru and put you back into foster care."

Rin's face paled. "No! I don't want to go back!"

"And you're not going to," Jaken said grimly. "Buckle up."

Jaken pulled out of the garage just in time to see the two humans run out of the house looking panicked and yelling something. Jaken ignored them and floored the car, swerving out into the road. They were safe for now, but Jaken had no doubt that this incident would be reported to the police as a kidnapping. They had to get a different car, and they had to find a place to hide, but where? The best place Jaken could think of was one of the reservations, but would it really be okay to take Rin there?

_I might not have a choice._


	4. Chapter 4

Koga bit back a curse as he watched the cops combing Sesshomaru's house. He'd led the yokai to Sesshomaru's home because he'd wanted to speak to Jaken and warn him about what had happened at the reservation. Jaken would have been the one who could contact the reservations in other countries and warn them about what was happening, perhaps even bring in some reinforcements to help them stop Isia, but it looked like that wouldn't happen now. In all likely hood, the cops had arrested Jaken.

"Why are they searching Sesshomaru's home?" Ayame asked.

"I don't know," Koga said. "Could just be because he's a yokai, I guess."

But what if the cops hadn't arrested Jaken? Technically, they'd have no real reason to, right? So, if Jaken hadn't been arrested, he'd probably have left to go to the nearest reservation, which was the one Isia had taken over. He'd be walking into a trap and have no idea.

"Well, what are we going to do now?" Ayame asked him.

Koga tried to think quickly. They needed to make their way to the other reservation. There were only two in Japan, there not being room to hide more than two reservations in the country since there were so many humans here now. Koga wanted to get there before Isia did and enchanted the yokai there to join her side as well.

_But how much of those feelings were caused by the jewel shard, and how much was there to begin with?_

Koga didn't want to think about that, not with how he himself had felt when Isia was talking.

"Ayame, I want you and Ginta to go back to the reservation," Koga ordered. "If Jaken wasn't captured by the humans, he'll be heading that way, and he needs to be warned. Once you're done there, make your way to the other reservation as fast as you can."

Ayame nodded. "Right. Come on Ginta."

Ayame and Ginta ran off back the way they had come. "Okay, everyone, let's go."

They continued making their way to the other reservation, avoiding human settlements and roads, which cut down on their speed. At this rate, they'd probably only make it by noon the next day, if they didn't stop for anything.

_That'll have to be fast enough._

* * *

Jaken held Rin's hand as he led the way to the gates of the reservation. Wards had been built into the walls of the reservation to firmly tell humans that there was nothing there. If Jaken didn't keep a hold of Rin's hand, she could easily wind up wandering off in the wrong direction.

"Everyone here is going to be a yokai?" Rin asked, looking part curious and part nervous.

"Yes," Jaken said, "but you don't need to be worried. They'll be nice to you."

In actuality, Jaken wasn't entirely sure how they would react. He knew they wouldn't hurt Rin especially once he told them Lord Sesshomaru had adopted her; they'd probably even be polite, again because she belonged to Lord Sesshomaru. But whether or not they'd accept her was another matter entirely.

Jaken walked inside, and out of habit he dropped his human disguise. He didn't think about how that would affect Rin until he heard her gasp. Warily, Jaken looked back at her. Rin stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, and then grinned.

"Mr. Jaken, you're cute!" Rin said.

Jaken sputtered. Never, in all his life, had anyone referred to Jaken as cute. "Don't say silly things, Rin," Jaken grumbled to hide his embarrassment.

Jaken turned his attention to their surroundings. Where was everyone anyways? There was a flare of yoki then, one that even Jaken couldn't miss. He heard yells in the distance too.

"Mr. Jaken, I hear something," Rin said.

"Yeah, I hear it too," Jaken said with a frown. What was going on that would cause a reaction like this? Perhaps Koga had just arrived with the news about Naraku and the existence of yokai being revealed to the humans. But no, Koga should have already been here.

_I don't like this…_

Jaken's instincts were telling him that there was something wrong happening, and one didn't live to be as old as Jaken was by ignoring one's instincts.

"We're leaving, Rin," Jaken said heading back to the gates. If Rin was confused, she was smart enough not to try asking questions just then.

"Isia said you can't leave."

Jaken didn't stop when he heard the unfamiliar man's voice; unfortunately, Rin did, and she was bigger than Jaken. The resulting pause lasted just long enough for the man to be able to grab each of them by the back of their shirts and toss them away from the gate.

They landed roughly on the ground, and Rin let out a yelp of pain. Jaken glanced over at her; she had a few scratches, but otherwise seemed fine. Reassured of that at least, Jaken turned his attention to their attacker. He was a tiger yokai, big and bulky. He had short orange hair, gleaming yellow eyes, and the facial expression of a person that was all brawn and little brains. Jaken thought quickly, and remembered his name was Taro; Jaken had long made it a point to know the name of every yokai on every reservation, and tried to be present at every birth, if possible.

Taro grinned down at them, though it wasn't a very friendly grin. "Hey, you're Jaken, Sesshomaru's little toad."

Jaken glared. "And you're Taro, a bratty little kitten."

Taro looked floored that Jaken actually knew his name, or perhaps it was because Jaken had insulted him, but Jaken decided to press his momentary advantage. "What is the meaning of throwing us around like that?" Jaken asked getting to his feet and pulling Rin up as well. "You could get in big trouble doing things like that. Now stand aside, we've got things to do."

For a moment, it actually looked as though Taro might obey him, but that was when the others arrived.

"Well, what have we here?"

Jaken mentally cursed as he looked over at the crowd newcomers. It looked as though over half of the reservation had arrived. At the lead was another tiger yokai, Isia. On a choker around her neck, Jaken saw a shard of the Shikon Jewel.

This was so much worse than Jaken had originally thought.

"What are you doing, Isia?" Jaken asked as Rin did her best to hide behind him.

"What does it look like I'm doing, Jaken?" Isia replied with a smile. "I'm taking over; taking over the reservations, and taking over the world."

Was she stupid? Did she really think that would be a simple thing to do? Even if Lord Sesshomaru weren't in the way of her plans, the humans were no longer weak little pushovers. Their technologies rivaled any of the yokai for destructive power. It was a war that no one could win.

Rin whimpered, and Jaken wanted to swear as Isia's eyes snapped to the little girl. If Isia was planning to try and subjugate the humans, she would have no qualms about killing one human girl.

"A human," Isia hissed, her eyes narrowing. "I don't think one has ever set foot in this reservation before. One must wonder then, why have you brought one here now?"

Jaken hesitated before speaking. If Isia was rebelling against Lord Sesshomaru, then telling the truth could get Rin killed. On the other hand, the truth might be all that kept Rin alive.

"Don't you dare touch Rin," Jaken said. "Lord Sesshomaru himself adopted her, and he'll kill any fool who tries to hurt her."

There was a muttering amongst the crowd, and Isia's eyes gleamed. "Is that so?" she purred. "Well, we'll have to take special care of her, now won't we."

Jaken kept himself from smiling grimly. It looked like his plan had worked. It was obvious that Isia was planning to challenge Lord Sesshomaru, and she was smart enough to want any advantage possible. If Rin was going to be an advantage over Lord Sesshomaru though, she'd have to be alive. If she was dead, she wasn't useful, and Isia wouldn't, hopefully, throw away an advantage like that.

"Taro, grab the girl," Isia said.

Taro reached over and snatched Rin up by the back of her shirt. "Put me down!" she yelled.

"What do you want to do with the toad?" Yura asked.

"He's useless. Throw him out," Isia said. "Taro, come with me; we have to find someplace to keep the girl."

Isia and Taro walked away, followed by most of the crowd. "Mr. Jaken!" Rin yelled.

Jaken grimaced. He didn't like seeing them walk away with Rin, but he'd made sure they wouldn't kill her, which was all he could do right now.

Someone, Jaken didn't see who, kicked Jaken in the side, knocking him to the ground. There was barely a pause before other blows rained down. Jaken wasn't sure how much time passed before they finally stopped.

"How pathetic," Yura said with a laugh. "Why Sesshomaru ever kept a worthless creature like you, I'll never know. One of you throw this lump of garbage out the gates."

Jaken let his eyes stay closed as someone dragged him through the gates and left him. He waited until he heard the gates close and the noises from the opposite side faded away. Then he opened his eyes and struggled to his feet. Every part of his body hurt, but he couldn't let that stop him. He had to get to Lord Sesshomaru and tell him what had happened, that Isia was rebelling and that she had taken Rin.

He had traveled for at least an hour when he heard someone approaching him. Jaken hid behind some bushes and watched to see who was coming.

Ayame appeared with Ginta close behind her. He saw Ayame sniff and then dash over to the bushes he was hiding in. "Oh, Jaken, what did they do to you?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Jaken snapped with as much malice as his pain would allow him to muster. "Besides, what happened to me isn't important; they've got Rin!"

"Who?" Ginta asked.

"Rin! The human girl that Lord Sesshomaru adopted!"

Ayame and Ginta gaped at him. "Sesshomaru adopted a human girl?" Ayame asked.

"And Isia is stupid enough to hold her prisoner?" Ginta asked.

"Yes!" Jaken said. "Now we must go! I have to tell Lord Sesshomaru about all that has happened!"

Ayame picked Jaken up. "Right. First we have to meet with Koga at the other reservation."

"There's no time for that!" Jaken protested. "I need to get to Lord Sesshomaru now!"

"You also need to heal," Ayame said, "and there's nowhere else for us to go."

"Actually," Ginta said slowly, "there is one other place we could go; and Jaken would be able to keep up with the news until he got better."

Ayame and Jaken frowned. "Where is this place?" Ayame asked.

Jaken had a feeling he knew. "You mean the Higurashi Shrine, don't you?"

Ginta nodded.

Jaken sighed. "It'll do till morning. Let's go."

* * *

Sango drove over to Miroku's house to pick him up to go over to Kagome's place. Shippo had declared that they were going to have a day of training after how quickly they had been beaten the last time.

Sango agreed that they needed the training; their loss had been completely humiliating. Those two that they had fought had been professionals. Professional what exactly, Sango wasn't sure. Fighters? Killers? Mercenaries?

Sango pulled into Miroku's driveway and saw Miroku was waiting for her on his front porch. Sango felt a little flutter in her stomach when Miroku walked towards her. They hadn't been alone since the day Naraku had attacked, and that wasn't entirely accidental. Sango hadn't felt completely comfortable around Miroku since that kiss.

It had been all right when they'd thought they were probably going to die. After all, what was a kiss when you only had five minutes left to live? But now that they weren't dead, that kiss threw a wrench in their whole relationship.

"Good morning, Sango," Miroku said cheerfully as he got in her car.

"Good morning," Sango said as she pulled out of the driveway. She kept her eyes firmly on the road in order to avoid looking at Miroku.

How was she supposed to react to his kiss? They had been friends for so long; how was she supposed to think of him now?

"I wonder what Shippo will have us do today," Miroku mused.

"Who knows," Sango said.

"Sango," Miroku said.

"Hm?"

"Is something bothering you?"

"Why would something be bothering me?" Sango asked. _Don't you dare say it, don't say it!_

"I just wondered since it almost feels like you've been avoiding me, and now I can barely get you to speak to me."

Sango's grip on the steering wheel tightened, and she didn't have to look at Miroku to know he'd be staring at her intently.

"It wouldn't have something to do with the fact that I kissed you, would it?" Miroku asked.

_I said not to say it!_

Sango whipped into Kagome's driveway faster than needed. "We're here," she said shortly, turning off the car and jumping out

"Sango!" Miroku called, climbing out the other side.

"Just leave it alone!" Sango yelled, and yanked open the door to the house and stomped into the living room.

"Er, hi," Kagome said, glancing from Sango to Miroku.

"Well, now that we're all here," Shippo said, plainly ignoring the tension between Miroku and Sango, "let's head out back and get to work."

They all followed Shippo out to the backyard and waited for instructions.

"Okay, before I can teach you anything, I need to know what you know already. Have any of you ever been taught any sort of fighting? And I'm not talking to you Inuyasha, so don't respond."

Kagome's eyes widened and she swatted what was probably Inuyasha's shoulder. "Inuyasha, that was rude!"

Sango raised her hand. "I've had some training."

"Right then," Shippo said. "Let's see what you've got."

Shippo got his own katana as Sango pulled out hers. They faced each other as the others moved back to give them some room.

There was a moment of silence as Shippo and Sango assessed each other. Shippo moved first, stepping forward and swinging the sword down at Sango. Sango brought her sword up and blocked. Shippo swung again and again, and each time Sango blocked his strike. But she couldn't just keep blocking; no fight was ever won that way.

Sango locked their blades together and stepped in close to Shippo. She hooked one of her feet behind Shippo's and yanked it forward, knocking Shippo off balance. She pressed her advantage by shoving him back, causing Shippo to fall on his back.

Reacting faster than Sango had counted on, Shippo flipped off his back and back onto his feet. "Not bad," Shippo said, lowering his sword. He glanced over at Miroku and Kagome. "And neither of you have any sort of training?"

"Nope," Kagome said while Miroku just shook his head.

Shippo sighed. "Right then. We'll be starting from the basics. Before I set any of you to work with your weapons, you ought to have some hand to hand combat training. Sango, I want you to help Kagome and I'll work with Miroku."

The two groups separated a bit so they'd each have some room. "Okay, here's the basic fighting stance you ought to take," Sango said, demonstrating.

"Like this?" Kagome asked attempting to copy Sango. Before Sango could correct Kagome's mistakes, she glared off to her right, her face bright red, and said, "Inuyasha, you don't need to laugh at me if I'm not doing it right."

"It's okay Kagome," Sango said. "Just widen your stance a bit, and raise your arms. And take your thumb out from under your other fingers; hit someone like that and you'll break your thumb."

Once Kagome had the stance down, Sango showed her how to punch. While they were practicing that, Kagome asked, "Hey Sango, why were you upset with Miroku earlier?"

Sango scowled; of course Kagome would have to bring that up. "It's nothing."

"It looked an awful lot like something to me," Kagome said. "Want to talk about it?"

"If I wanted to talk about it, I'd be the one bringing the topic up," Sango snapped.

"Alright, alright, I'll leave it alone," Kagome said. "But you realize you're going to have to talk to him about it at some point, right?"

Sango didn't reply, and they spent the rest of the morning working on the hand to hand fighting. They didn't stop until lunch, which turned out to be a very quick meal. After lunch, Shippo announced that they would spend the afternoon working with their weapons.

"Sango, do you know anything about archery?" Shippo asked.

"No," Sango admitted. _I think I know where this is going._

"Okay, then I'm going to need you to work with Miroku, while I teach Kagome how to use her bow properly," Shippo said.

Sango was pretty sure she heard Kagome mutter something along the lines of, "You break a magic jewel just one time…"

They headed out to the yard again, and this time Sango separated with Miroku. He picked up his staff and settled into a fighting stance with it.

"Sango, we need to talk about this," he said.

"There's nothing to talk about," Sango said, getting herself into position with her sword.

"Yes there is," Miroku said.

Sango stepped forward and swung her sword, and Miroku caught the blade on his staff. It wasn't exactly fair of Sango to attack him like this when Miroku didn't know any real moves, but Sango didn't much care about what was fair at the moment.

"We can't pretend it didn't happen," Miroku said, shoving Sango back.

"Why not?" Sango asked. Why couldn't they pretend it hadn't happened? They'd been doing a good job of that the past few days.

Sango liked Miroku and liked being his friend, but that kiss ruined everything. How could they stay friends after something like that?

"Because it did happen," Miroku said.

"But it didn't have to!" Sango cried as she swung her sword again. "Why'd you have to kiss me in the first place? We were friends!"

"Maybe I don't want to be just friends!" Miroku snapped. He swung his staff and brought it down with a sharp crack on Sango's hand, making her drop the sword. He dropped his own staff, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her towards him. "Maybe I want us to be more than friends."

Sango closed her eyes, fighting back tears. "No." She shoved Miroku back and ran into Kagome's house.

Stupid Miroku! Why'd he have to go and say that? Why'd he have to go and ruin everything? Hadn't they been good friends? Why'd he do this?

Sango made it to Kagome's room and threw herself onto the bed. How could Miroku be so stupid?

A minute or so later the door opened and Kagome came in. "Hey Sango, are you okay?"

"No. He's ruined everything."

Kagome sat on the edge o the bed. "How?"

Sango pushed herself up and glared at Kagome. "What do you mean how? There's no way we can stay friends after this! Why didn't he just pretend we never kissed?"

"Why should he pretend nothing happened?" Kagome asked. "After all, something did happen. What's so terrible about the idea of being in a relationship with Miroku?"

"You don't understand," Sango said.

"No, I don't. Why don't you explain it to me?"

How could Sango explain it to her? It wasn't something that Sango talked about, not with anyone. "I can't explain it."

"That's fine," Kagome said. "But you know you're going to have to explain to Miroku. You owe him that much at least if you're ending your friendship."

"I'm not ending our friendship," Sango countered. "He did that."

Kagome shrugged. "However you want to look at it; but either way you owe him an explanation."

Sango didn't want to talk to him about it either.

"Hey, Kagome, I think you need to come down here," Souta called.

"Coming," Kagome replied. "Are you going to come down or stay here?" Kagome asked Sango.

"I'll stay here," Sango said.

Kagome left and Sango curled up on the bed. None of them would ever understand; she'd promised herself a long time ago that she'd never let any relationship go this far. She'd promised she wouldn't, because it only ever ended in heartache, and Sango wouldn't put herself through that, she wouldn't. But none of her friends would understand.

* * *

Kagome went downstairs. She was worried about Sango; why had she reacted like this? It wasn't like Miroku's feelings had been a secret. Or had Sango willfully ignored them?

Kagome's thoughts were distracted from Sango and Miroku's plight by the sight in her living room. There were three strangers in there, a man, a woman, and a green something lying on her couch.

"Um, what's going on?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha and Shippo both looked grim. "Trouble," Inuyasha said.


	5. Chapter 5

Jaken awoke early the next morning, pleased to find that he was already healed. That meant that he'd be able to leave today and tell Lord Sesshomaru about everything that had happened.

He had told Shippo, Inuyasha and Inuyasha's humans the evening before and they' all been upset with the news, Shippo especially; he'd called Isia several insulting names.

Surprisingly, it had been Kagome's mother that had kept the coolest head (whether because she was simply that good under stress or she just didn't understand the enormity of what was happening, Jaken wasn't entirely sure). She had interrupted the panic and given all of them chores to complete. She'd ordered Shippo to get bedding for Ginta to use in the guest room (where Shippo was currently staying), and for Kagome to prepare a pallet for Ayame to sleep on in her room. She told Souta to show Ayame where the first aid kit was so Ayame could treat Jaken's injuries, and then told Miroku and Inuyasha to help her prepare dinner. Why, she'd even thought to ask what Ayame, Ginta and Jaken's food preferences were. As far as humans went, Mrs. Higurashi was one of his favorites.

Jaken had slept on the couch the night before, so when he got up he carefully folded the blankets he'd been given so they could be put away. By the time he was done, Shippo, Ginta, and Ayame had all come downstairs into the living room. Jaken was willing to bet that none of them had slept the night before.

"What are you planning to do?" Shippo asked.

"I am going to warn Lord Sesshomaru about what has happened," Jaken said. "Ayame, I want you to come with me. Ginta, you go tell Koga what has happened."

"Wouldn't Koga already know?" Shippo asked.

Jaken mentioned Rin the night before, because he wasn't certain how many people Lord Sesshomaru wanted to know about her. He had only told Shippo that Isia and over half of the reservation was rebelling. Still, Shippo at least needed to know everything.

"When did Sesshomaru adopt a human girl?" Shippo asked in amazement.

"The day after you all spoke to Kagome and Inuyasha the first time," Jaken said.

"When was he going to tell anyone?" Shippo asked.

"I have no idea, and it's really not important," Jaken said. "Ayame, Ginta, we all need to get going. Shippo, please give Mrs. Higurashi our thanks for her hospitality."

"Will do," Shippo agreed. "And good luck to you all."

* * *

Inuyasha snuck away from the stairs as Jaken, Ayame and Ginta left the house. He slipped out of an upstairs window and jumped on the roof where he could think without risk of being interrupted.

It was stupid, Inuyasha knew, but the news that Sesshomaru had adopted a human child had caused a rise of bitter emotions, most of all betrayal. "Idiot," Inuyasha muttered. "Sesshomaru can't betray me when he never cared about me in the first place."

Even so, the knowledge that Sesshomaru had adopted this girl Rin hurt. It was as though Sesshomaru was saying that some random human brat was more important to him than his own flesh and blood brother had been. Inuyasha had _needed_ Sesshomaru. No one had taken pity on Inuyasha in his youth. He'd been a scapegoat, blamed for Inutaisho's death because there had been no one else living that could be blamed.

Inuyasha had learned quickly to stay out of the way of everyone. He'd lived in the attics most of the time, often only coming down when hunger drove him to steal from the kitchens. What schooling he had he'd gotten by spying on lessons. What fighting he'd learned, he'd learned simply by trying to defend himself from abuse. The only protection Sesshomaru had ever offered was saying that no one was allowed to kill Inuyasha when he was a pup.

Inuyasha had tried to reach out to Sesshomaru once, and only once. To say Inuyasha's attempt hadn't been well received would be an understatement; Sesshomaru's claws hurt, even when the blow wasn't meant to kill. Needless to say, Inuyasha had never tried it again.

_Why? Why would Sesshomaru adopt any child? I didn't think he liked children, much less humans._

But then, he wouldn't have thought that Sesshomaru would have hidden yokai away from humans either. What had happened to Sesshomaru during those five hundred years that Inuyasha had been a statue? Or had the change started before that? It could have, but Inuyasha highly doubted it.

Inuyasha rested his hand on his sword, seeking some comfort. The sword was the only thing Inutaisho had left for him; if Sesshomaru had had his way, Inuyasha would never have found it. Inuyasha had stumbled upon the sword by accident, but when he'd realized it was meant for him, he'd taken it and run away from the Western Lands, vowing to never return.

_But I did go back, years later._ Inuyasha scowled at the memory. _And I got turned into a statue for my efforts._

But those efforts then had not been for Sesshomaru, nor were Inuyasha's efforts now, no matter that Sesshomaru thought he was in charge. Inuyasha was gathering the jewel shard now because he had a score to settle with Naraku and because he needed to protect Kagome. The fact that these things helped Sesshomaru had absolutely nothing to do with it at all.

_At this point, I'm way past wanting his approval._

* * *

Cathleen sat listening to the arguments of the other representatives of the world about what they were supposed to do with the "yokai problem." Cathleen was tired, cranky, and trying desperately to wait for the right moment to make her own statement. If she got the timing right, she could sway them to her side; if it was wrong she could easily alienate America from the rest of the world.

But the whole situation was just so _frustrating._ After she'd talked to Sesshomaru, Cathleen had spent all her time in the suite provided to her conversing with Congress and Senate via satellite. If she was going to do what she had planned, she had to have their support, and she had to have it now.

It hadn't been easy, but she'd done it. It had taken a fine mixture of begging, bullying, and cajoling, but Cathleen had gotten the majority vote she'd needed, if only just barely. But 'just barely' was good enough for right now. She could worry about the rest of them later.

Cathleen studied the different people in the room. Whose support could she count on? Who would oppose her? And most terrifying of all, would this lead to war? She would do what she could to prevent that, but if it took war to keep her country safe, than she'd do it, because whether or not anyone liked it, the world needed Sesshomaru. The man controlled the economy for crying out loud! If he died, the world's economy was going with him, and Cathleen wouldn't throw her people into another depression.

_If Sesshomaru dies, we're ruined. If he lives, we can get control of our own economy back from him, eventually._

Now that was going to take some tricky planning. Shelving that for another day, Cathleen decided it was time to have her say.

"Enough!" she said, slamming her hands on her desk for attention.

The room went quiet.

"This arguing is pointless," Cathleen said. "We're doing nothing but going in circles. Ultimately, we only have three choices; segregation, acceptance, or elimination. _That's it. _That's all we can do. But I can tell you right now that segregation doesn't work. It's only a temporary, and unfair, fix. That leaves acceptance or elimination.

"Now, let's think about those options for a minute. I know some of have said that we shouldn't accept them because they're dangerous; to that I must point out, so are we. How hard would it be for any of us in this room to get a gun and bullets and just start shooting people? How hard would it be for us to look up homemade bombs on the internet and blow something up? Our countries have weapons that could blow entire nations off the map. Just because we _can_ do these things, doesn't mean we _will._ Just because some yokai could kill us, doesn't mean they will."

_Please let me be getting through to them._

"And do we really want to be known as the leaders who eliminated an entire race of people, man, woman and child?" Cathleen let that statement sink in, hoping they'd feel the full weight of that punch. "Do we want to be known for genocide? For murder? For guaranteeing that we'd go to war and get who knows how many of our own soldiers slaughtered? Because if we attack them, the yokai are going to fight back and our people will die.

"But if we take the path of acceptance, if they become a part of us…Just think what we could learn from them. We have no idea what sort of things they may know about but we don't. To have stayed hidden from us so long that no one believed they were real means they must have some skills they can teach us."

A pretty speech, but not the real reason Cathleen was throwing her support in their corner, although she would be fascinated to learn from and about yokai. The real reason was that, for the moment, America needed Sesshomaru to survive.

That and Cathleen didn't know if she could live with herself if she agreed to genocide, and if they went to war with the yokai, that's exactly what would happen.

"I don't know what the rest of you will do," Cathleen said. "But America has chosen the path of acceptance." Well, technically Congress had. Cathleen had no idea how the general population would react to this. "From this point on, America will be a safe haven for any yokai who wish to come to us."

Cathleen almost held her breath then, watching and waiting to see who would speak up. Who would be the first to join her? Would any of them?

_Please, someone, say something._

Joshua Cohen, the representative from Israel, spoke first. "I agree with President Glenn. Israel will support the yokai."

"So will Japan," Akihiko Ito said.

Others chorused in agreement, and Cathleen had to work hard not to sag with relief. It had worked! People were agreeing! No, it wouldn't be easy to work things out between yokai and humans so they could live together peacefully; likely it would be years before both sides were entirely comfortable with each other. But the world leaders were willing to listen, and that meant they had a good shot at getting through all of this.

"Russia will not accept them," Sergey Petrov said, quieting the room again. "They are too dangerous and unknown right now. Russia will not allow the yokai within our borders."

Cathleen frowned as other leaders voiced similar decisions. _Well, I did force them to choose. I guess I can't expect everyone to choose the way I want them to._

Still, it was a start.

"Perhaps we should let Taisho know of our decision," Cathleen said. "And I think it would be best if we didn't keep him imprisoned anymore either."

It was quickly agreed that documents detailing the agreement would be drawn up, and Sesshomaru would be moved to a room that wasn't in the jail (although Cathleen had a feeling that guards would likely still be keeping an eye on him).

Vice President Ward leaned over and whispered, "I can handle it from here; you go get some rest. You won't be any good to anyone if you collapse from exhaustion."

Cathleen nodded and slipped quietly out of the room. She headed back to her rooms and as soon as she got there she flopped down on the bed. She had a lot more work she needed to do but first she needed sleep.

_After I rest, then I'll find Sesshomaru and work out the details of all this._

* * *

Kagome hated being in the middle; and she was literally in the middle this time. She was sitting between Sango and Miroku in the back of Shippo's car. The two hadn't said one word to each other.

_This is so not good._

Why couldn't they just talk this out? It was so frustrating having her two best friends fighting like this.

"Do you sense anything yet?" Shippo asked Kagome. As soon as they'd been done with breakfast that morning, Shippo had insisted on leaving immediately so they could hunt jewel shards, and Kagome couldn't blame him. The thought of yokai rebelling against Sesshomaru and attacking everyone was scary.

"No, I don't," Kagome said. They'd been driving for hours and she hadn't felt anything at all. She waited for the complaint that was sure to come from Inuyasha, but he didn't say a thing. Kagome eyed him; he was sitting in the front seat staring out the window. He'd been quiet all day since Jaken and the others had left, and it bothered Kagome. Inuyasha wasn't the most talkative person she'd ever met, but he usually talked more than this.

_I wonder if something's bothering him._

Kagome frowned. She wished Inuyasha would talk to her. If he did, maybe she could help.

_Isn't this great. Miroku and Sango won't talk to each other, Inuyasha won't talk to anyone, Shippo's completely stressed, and I can't sense the jewel shards. It's enough to get any girl down_.

"Wait…I feel something!"

Shippo quickly turned off into a restaurant parking lot. Everyone climbed out of the car. "Which way?" Shippo asked.

A scream rent the air.

"I'm going to guess that way," Miroku said.

They ran down the sidewalk towards the scream, and soon had to push against a crowd running in the opposite direction. Up ahead, they saw a rat the size of a minivan come out of an alley. The rat's glowing red eyes landed on a woman who was to terrified to run away. The rat jumped at the woman, jaws open to bite.

"I don't think so!" Shippo jumped above the crowd and yelled, "Fox Fire!" Blue flames burst from his hands and sizzled between the rat and woman, causing the rat to pull back in fear. Shippo landed beside the woman, and picking her up dashed out of harm's way.

"Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" This time it was Inuyasha that jumped forward, slashing his claws at the rat. The rodent fell apart in bloody pieces on the sidewalk, and Kagome had to fight to keep her food down at the sight.

_That is the grossest thing that I've ever seen._

It made Kagome feel a bit better to see that Miroku and Sango looked green too.

"Quick, Kagome, get the jewel shard before it regenerates," Inuyasha ordered.

"Are you serious? I'm not sticking my hand in that!" Kagome cried.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes looking exasperated. "Then show me where it is and I'll get it! Just hurry up!"

Kagome forced herself to look closely at the bloody pieces. In one hunk she saw a faint pink glow. "There it is," she said pointing.

Without even flinching, Inuyasha reached in, felt around until he felt the stone, and pulled the jewel shard out. "Got it."

"Let's get out of here before the police show up," Shippo said.

They made their way back to Shippo's car and climbed in.

"Did you two seriously just fight a giant rat?" Sango asked.

"Yup," Shippo said cheerfully. "Luckily, that was just a normal rat that ate the jewel. Something like that isn't too hard to kill."

"Catch, Kagome," Inuyasha said, tossing her the shard.

Kagome caught it, and was grateful to see that Inuyasha had cleaned the blood off of it. "It seems so small," Kagome mused. "How many of these do you think are out there?"

"Hopefully not to many," Shippo said. "But I've been thinking; we're going to have to leave the city to keep searching."

"We are?" Sango asked.

"Uh huh. There's no way all the shards fell in just this city," Shippo said. "We're going to have to travel around the country to see if we can find them all."

Kagome perked up at the idea. A road trip didn't sound half bad. It might even be a good opportunity to get her friends out of the slumps they'd been pulled into. "When do we leave?"

"As soon as you three get your parents' permission," Shippo said, flashing back a grin.

Kagome couldn't help but smile back. This adventure was definitely going to be scary and gross, but who knew? It might actually be fun too.

* * *

Saito was putting away his crossbow as Krista watched the kitsune and his friends run off from her rooftop perch. "They should have let the kids handle it once the woman was safe," Krista said. "That thing wasn't near as dangerous as some of the stuff they're going to have to face. It would have been good practice."

"Are we going to go after them to get the jewel shard?" Saito asked.

Krista considered. "No," she finally said. "That shard will call enemies to them, and they need the training. We'll let them keep that one."

"What are we going to do then?"

Krista touched her pocket absentmindedly; the jewel shards were in there, in a warded pouch that was supposed to prevent anyone from being able to sense them. Given the fact that Kagome hadn't noticed them, it apparently worked. They'd gotten two more jewel shards; added to the one that the kitsune had collected, that made a total of four. "We're going to leave the city. I doubt there are any more shards here. If the others are smart, they'll start looking outside the city too."

"And if they aren't?" Saito asked dryly.

Krista snorted. "If they aren't, they're not going to live very long, now are they?"


	6. Chapter 6

Kagome walked in her house after they'd dropped Miroku and Sango off at their homes. Inuyasha had jumped up to the roof rather than come in, and Shippo headed for the living room, most likely to see if there was anything new on the news.

Kagome found Mrs. Higurashi in the kitchen fixing supper. "Did you find any shards today?" Mrs. Higurashi asked.

"We did," Kagome said with a smile. "Just one, but it's a start."

"That's good. Could you stir that soup for me?"

Kagome obediently stirred the soup. "Hey, Mom, Shippo doesn't think we're going to find any more shards in the city. He says we need to take a road trip to see if we can find more."

Mrs. Higurashi frowned. "When are you planning to leave?"

"Tomorrow, if we can," Kagome said.

"But Kagome, you have school tomorrow," Mrs. Higurashi protested.

That made Kagome pause, and count back over the days. Shoot, she did have school tomorrow. It had been a week, and fall break was over.

"I'd totally forgotten about that," Kagome said. "There's no way Miroku and Sango's parents will let them come."

"And I don't want you missing school for this either," Mrs. Higurashi said.

"But Mom, this is important," Kagome said.

"So is your education," Mrs. Higurashi said firmly. "This is your last year of high school, and the first half of the year is almost over. If you're planning to go to college you need to start thinking about scholarships and applications. If you don't want to go to college, you need to start thinking about getting a job. Finding the jewel shards is important, but so is preparing for your future."

Kagome sighed; Mrs. Higurashi was right of course, she did need to start thinking about her future. It was just that the present seemed so much more important than the future at the moment. "How about we go for the weekend then?" Kagome asked.

Mrs. Higurashi nodded. "That will be fine; as long as you make sure you do your homework."

"Yes ma'am," Kagome said. Shippo and Inuyasha weren't likely to be happy about the delay, but other than outright disobeying her mother, there was nothing Kagome could do about it.

_Which reminds me; I wanted to try and figure out what was bothering Inuyasha._

Somehow Kagome didn't think Inuyasha would talk to her if they were around other people, even if Kagome was the only one that could actually hear him. So Kagome needed to get him somewhere a bit more private then.

Slowly an idea formed in Kagome's mind. "Hey, Mom, do you think I could pack up enough of this food for two people?"

* * *

Inuyasha was staring at the sky, trying awfully hard to think about nothing when he heard Kagome's voice calling him. "Hey, Inuyasha, can you come down here?"

Inuyasha hopped off the roof and landed lightly beside Kagome, who was holding a large basket that smelled really good and a blanket rolled up beneath her arm. "Why do you have food in the basket?" he asked, feeling curious.

Kagome smiled brightly at him. "Because you and I are going on a picnic."

"…We are?" Inuyasha asked. He didn't remember agreeing to that.

Kagome nodded. "Yup, we are, just the two of us. Come on."

Inuyasha followed Kagome, not displeased, but definitely confused. Where had this come from? It just seemed so sudden; Kagome had never planned for the two of them to do anything alone before…

That thought sparked the memory of the conversation he'd had with Souta about making Kagome fall in love with him, and what had been said about dates. _We're going off, just the two of us, and we're going to be eating dinner. Is this a date?_

Inuyasha felt his face flush, and he looked away from Kagome, hoping she wouldn't notice. It could be a date; it fit the requirements that Souta had told him. Only, from what Souta had said, Inuyasha had thought the guy was supposed to take the girl out on the date, not the other way around. Of course, women these days did much more than he was used to, so maybe this was acceptable?

Because the Higurashi's lived on a shrine, they owned more land than most of their neighbors. Kagome led Inuyasha to a wooded area near the back of their property.

"This is a good spot," she said, setting the basket down and spreading out the blanket on the ground.

Inuyasha sat on the blanket, and Kagome sat down beside him. "Today is a great day for eating outside, don't you think?"

Inuyasha glanced around; it was a nice day, all things considered. Not that eating outside was really a big treat for Inuyasha, considering most of the time when he got food he was eating outside. Still, he supposed it was probably considered a fun thing to do when you ate inside most of the time.

"Yeah, it's a nice day," he said.

Kagome pulled the food out of the basket, and Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably. What was he supposed to do? He had no experience with anything remotely like this, and Souta hadn't given him any details about how a person was supposed to act on a date.

_Um, I think Souta said I was supposed to compliment her._

Okay, he could do that…What was he supposed to compliment her on, anyways?

"Eat up," Kagome said, handing him a bowl of food.

Inuyasha took a few bites and said, "The food is good."

_There, I complimented her._

"Yeah, Mom's a great cook," Kagome agreed.

_Correction, I complimented her mom._

This complimenting business was harder than it seemed.

"Hey, Inuyasha," Kagome said, sounding suddenly serious.

"Yeah?" Inuyasha asked, feeling wary. What was going to happen now?

"You've seemed a bit distracted today. I was wondering if something was bothering you."

Inuyasha frowned. He didn't want to talk about that, so of course, Kagome had to bring it up. "It's nothing," Inuyasha said, focusing his glare on his food.

"I know it's probably none of my business," Kagome said softly, "but talking about it might help, and I'm always here to listen."

"It's nothing I shouldn't have expected," Inuyasha said. "It was just pointed out again that I mean less than dirt to Sesshomaru. I heard Jaken talking to Shippo and Ayame this morning. Apparently Sesshomaru's adopted some human brat as his daughter."

It was weird; Inuyasha didn't want to tell Kagome about any of this, but now that he'd started, he couldn't seem to stop the words.

"Sesshomaru hates humans! He's always hated them, and he doesn't like kids either. And it's not fair that'd he'd adopt any kid when he hated me!" Inuyasha's grip on his bowl had tightened throughout his rant, and at the last word, the glass shattered, dumping the food all over his lap.

Inuyasha cursed and brushed the bits of food and glass off of his lap, fixedly not looking at Kagome. He was startled then when he felt Kagome's arms wrap around him in a tight hug.

"K-Kagome?" he stuttered.

She sniffled into his shoulder, but didn't speak.

"Are you crying?" Inuyasha asked, stunned.

"Yes," she said. "I'm crying, because I know you won't cry about what happened, and somebody should."

Inuyasha tried to wrap his mind around that, but found he couldn't. It just didn't make sense; of course Inuyasha wouldn't cry, crying was weak. So why did that mean Kagome should cry?

No, it didn't make sense, but it made one thing glaringly obvious. Kagome _cared_. He had, at worst, been reviled, at best, tolerated. No one had ever cared before.

Inuyasha encircled Kagome in his arms and clung to her tightly, like a drowning man holding a lifeline, and determined to never, ever, let her go.

* * *

Kagome was furious. How could Sesshomaru do this? She hadn't liked him on their first meeting, but she hadn't imagined him capable of such cruelty as to leave scars this deep on Inuyasha. What had Sesshomaru done to Inuyasha?

_Other than give people permission to kill him?_

Kagome had no doubt that whatever the details of Inuyasha's childhood, he had most definitely been the victim of abuse, most likely at the hands of his bother. It also seemed clear to Kagome that whatever had happened in the past, Inuyasha still craved Sesshomaru's love and acceptance, though it wasn't likely that Inuyasha would admit such a thing to himself.

_Sesshomaru how could you do this to your own brother?_

The next time Kagome met up with Sesshomaru, they were going to have words.

Kagome entered the kitchen, setting the basket on the counter. "Sango and Miroku called," Mrs. Higurashi said, washing dishes. "They said to tell you that they won't be able to go hard hunting until next weekend either."

"Okay," Kagome said. She unloaded the basket quickly. "Um, I'm afraid there was a bit of an accident outside, we broke one of your bowls."

Kagome didn't like fibbing to Mrs. Higurashi, but there was no way she tell the whole truth without telling her what she and Inuyasha had talked about, and there was no way Kagome was going to break Inuyasha's trust like that.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed. "It won't be the last time a dish breaks. As long as no one was hurt, it's fine."

"No, we weren't hurt," Kagome said.

Kagome made her escape from the kitchen and headed towards her room. On her way through the living room, she caught sight of Shippo watching the news, and she had to wonder if Shippo knew how Inuyasha had been treated, or if, even worse, Shippo may have participated.

_No way, Shippo's to nice to do something like that._

Maybe he was nice, but if Kagome remembered that conversation in the limo correctly, Shippo hadn't had a problem with the idea of Inuyasha forcing Kagome to marry him against her will. That didn't exactly speak well of Shippo.

"Did you want something?" Shippo asked, having noticed Kagome's staring.

"I was just wondering how long you've been working for Sesshomaru," Kagome said.

Shippo tilted his head to the side, obviously bemused by her question. "Almost four hundred years now. Why?"

"Just curious," Kagome said, feeling relieved. If Shippo hadn't even been with Sesshomaru for four hundred years, then there was no way he could have been involved in the mess that was Inuyasha's childhood.

Kagome hopped up the stairs, and found Souta on his way down. Giving in to a sudden impulse, Kagome caught him in a hug.

"Gah! Kagome, what are you doing?" Souta yelped, trying to squirm out of her grip, but Kagome refused to let go.

"You know I love you, right?" Kagome asked.

"Yes, now let go of me!" Souta demanded, looking embarrassed.

Kagome grinned and kissed Souta's cheek before letting him go. Grumbling and wiping his cheek, Souta hurried down the stairs.

Feeling just a little bit better, Kagome continued to her room.

* * *

Shippo pondered Kagome's suddenly erratic behavior, wondering what the cause could be. First, she'd had dinner alone with Inuyasha, then she'd wanted to know how long Shippo had been working for Sesshomaru, and then she'd showered her little brother with sibling love.

It didn't take a genius to put the puzzle together.

It was no secret that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had never liked each other. Okay, perhaps dislike wasn't quite the strong enough word from what Shippo had seen and heard. Still, they were brothers. Surely whatever Kagome had learned from Inuyasha couldn't have been that bad.

Of course, what wasn't that bad to a yokai might be horrifying for a human. Whatever had been said, it seemed plain enough that Kagome was not happy with Sesshomaru, or those associated with him. This was not a good thing, since they were going to need to work together to get out of the mess they'd found themselves in, especially Kagome. With her spiritual powers, she could prove invaluable to their fight against Isia.

_Great. Now I have to find a way to make amends._

* * *

Krista walked into Saito's bedroom in the house that the Hunters were currently staying in. They were planning to leave in the morning to search for more jewel shards, and Saito was, from the looks of things, almost finished with his packing.

"I've got good news, and I've got bad news," Krista said.

Saito frowned. "And?"

"Good news, the boss's backup for us finally arrived."

Saito's frown deepened. "And?"

Krista grinned sheepishly. "The boss's backup for us finally arrived."

Saito groaned. "She didn't."

"She did."

"I'm going to kill them," Saito said, "and maybe the boss too."

The bedroom door flew open wide. "Oh, Saito, darling, if you keep talking like that, people are going to start thinking you don't like us!"

Saito went for his sword and Krista had to dive forward and hold tight to Saito's sword arm to keep him from actually using the thing. "I thought I told you to never come near my room!" Saito snarled.

In the doorway, Jakotsu looked offended. "You mean you actually meant that?"

Saito glared at Krista, who was still holding onto arm. "Please tell me she didn't send all of them."

"We're here all right," Bankotsu said, coming up behind Jakotsu. "All seven of us."

Swearing enough to make a sailor blush, Saito yanked Krista off his arm and shoved her into Jakotsu and Bankotsu, knocking all three of them back. The second they were clear of his doorway, Saito slammed the door shut.

When the three of them untangled themselves, Krista said, "I think he took that rather well."

* * *

Isia settled back on her heels, feeling pleased with the plan she and her friends had come up with. She had sent some of her yokai out to find more jewel shards for her, and she was splitting the rest of her forces, some to guard the reservation they had right now, the rest to come with her and attack the other reservation.

_We have to attack it quickly, or they might manage to get reinforcements from other countries._

That wouldn't do; Isia didn't want to worry about the yokai in other countries until she had the situation in Japan well under her control.

"What are you going to do with the girl when we attack the other reservation?" asked Min, a bat yokai.

Isia considered. If she took the girl with her, there was a chance the girl could be killed, and if she was dead, the little human would be of no use whatsoever to Isia. However, if the girl wasn't with Isia when she fought Sesshomaru, the girl would be useless then, too.

"We will bring her with us, just in case Sesshomaru decides to put in an appearance," Isia decided. "Remember everyone, we leave at dawn."

* * *

Rin sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. The yokai had left her in a small cave, and the big cat man, Taro she thought Jaken had called him, had been left to guard her.

_Don't know why they bothered with a guard. It's not like Rin can run from them._

Running away from a foster home was completely different than running away from a bunch of yokai. Rin sniffled. She was tired, and hungry, and miserable, and all she wanted was to go back to Mr. Taisho and Mr. Jaken.

"Why are you crying?"

Rin looked up at Taro, startled. That the first time he'd spoken to her, but of all the things he could have asked, why that? The guy hadn't seemed real smart, but surely he wasn't that stupid. "Because Rin wants to go home."

Taro frowned. "Isia said you have to stay here."

Rin nodded. "But Rin doesn't want to."

Taro didn't seem to know what to say to that. Rin's stomach grumbled then. Taro brightened suddenly. "I'll get you food. Food always makes me feel better when I'm sad. You stay here."

Rin watched him go; she didn't plan to run away, because there was nowhere for her to go, and no chance she could make it anyways. Taro was acting weird, like he didn't understand that Rin was supposed to be a prisoner, and prisoners were supposed to be miserable (or so the stories all said). But if Taro really didn't understand that, and if, as Rin was starting to suspect, Taro wasn't actually evil, then Rin just might be able to convince him to help her.


	7. Chapter 7

Sesshomaru wasn't surprised when he sensed Cathleen coming to his door; he was only surprised that she had waited until late Monday morning to come. In truth, he had half expected her to show up the evening before, right when they had released him from his prison and given him this room, with the information that many of the countries had decided in favor of the yokai, with particulars to be worked out in the very near future.

Sesshomaru had spent most of his morning composing messages to send to the various leaders of the different reservations in other countries, and also deciding where he should move the yokai from the countries that did not want them there, like Russia. He would need to speak to several different countries about the evacuations, however.

Sesshomaru waited until he heard Cathleen knock on the door before he called, "Enter."

The door opened and two Secret Service agents, different from the ones he'd seen before, walked in, followed by Cathleen. She had dressed down a bit compared to the pants suits and dresses he had seen her in before now, wearing grey slacks and a sweater that fit her slim figure comfortably. She had her wavy brown hair pulled back with a clip, wore little makeup and no jewelry. Apparently she felt no need to put on a show for him like she would be expected to do for other politicians; and really, that was the way Sesshomaru preferred it.

"How are you enjoying you're new rooms?" Cathleen asked with a smile that made it difficult for Sesshomaru to tell if she meant the question to be teasing or serious.

"They are preferable to my former accommodations," Sesshomaru said, choosing to adopt a tone similar to Cathleen's.

Cathleen seemed to find his response amusing, if her smile was any indication.

"Have a seat," Sesshomaru said, motioning to a nearby empty chair.

Cathleen sat, her two bodyguards flanking her. "I wanted to talk to you about the yokai in America."

Sesshomaru nodded. He'd assumed as much.

"I'm going to be blunt with you, Sesshomaru," Cathleen said, leaning her chin on her hands. "This isn't going to be easy. I only barely got a majority vote in your favor, and I can't even begin to guess how the average citizen is going to take this. A lot of people probably won't like it, and then there are some who will probably like it too much."

Sesshomaru thought he knew what sort of people Cathleen was talking about; those obsessed with the occult or anything supernatural would be thrilled to find out that yokai and the like were real; though in truth yokai were no more supernatural than humans were. Still, these people would be likely to cause all manner of trouble, from attempting to control or sacrifice yokai, to even possibly worshiping them (obsessively devoted servants weren't always a good thing). It had happened in the past after all.

"Honestly, I don't know how this is going to work," Cathleen finished.

"I have been giving it some thought," Sesshomaru said, "and for the moment I think it would be best to keep the yokai in the reservations. Before we try and integrate the societies, I would like to focus on getting the yokai out of the countries that don't wish for their presence."

Cathleen nodded. "We'd be happy to give that assistance, and I'm sure other countries would as well."

They delved into a technical discussion then of what an evacuation of that size would entail, and they were involved in that for at least half an hour when Sesshomaru sensed a flare of energy that he hadn't been expecting.

_Jaken is here._

"Something wrong?" Cathleen asked, having noticed his pause.

"No," Sesshomaru replied. "Merely unexpected." Very unexpected. If Jaken was here, who was looking after Rin?

It took a good twenty minutes before Jaken and the person with him were actually able to make it to his rooms. This time Sesshomaru didn't bother waiting for a knock before calling out, "Enter."

The door opened and Jaken came in, followed by a female wolf yokai, both in their human guises. It took Sesshomaru a moment to place the female as Ayame, the one who was determined to have Koga as her mate.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken said. "We've come with important news for you."

Sesshomaru cut his eyes over at Cathleen, wondering if she'd take that as her cue to leave the way Jaken meant her to. Cathleen met Sesshomaru's gaze, but made no attempt whatsoever to get up. It seemed she wasn't leaving unless Sesshomaru expressly asked her to.

However, Sesshomaru decided not to have her leave. He needed an ally amongst the humans, and Cathleen seemed like the most likely one. He turned his attention back to Jaken. "You may release you're disguises, and continue with your report."

Jaken and Ayame were both surprised, but both obeyed his orders and dropped their disguises while Sesshomaru carefully observed the humans' reactions. He had to admit that the Secret Service agents were good; the two men barely flinched when Jaken and Ayame's appearances changed. Cathleen had to bite her bottom lip to keep her expression neutral, and Sesshomaru could feel her surprise. Still, she handled it much better than Sesshomaru thought most humans would have.

"I have bad news from the northern reservation," Jaken said. "A rebellion has started, led by a tiger yokai, Isia. She plans to try and take over the yokai, as well as the humans."

Sesshomaru didn't move upon hearing Jaken's news; he couldn't move, or he would likely kill something. What little fool was risking all of Sesshomaru's years of hard work for a rebellion that would come to nothing? Because it _would_ come to nothing; Sesshomaru would see to that personally.

Jaken hesitated a moment. "There is more. I'm afraid that Isia has taken Rin hostage."

She had dared to do _what_? No one took what was his! A growl rumbled in his chest; Sesshomaru was going to _kill_ Isia for this.

"Sesshomaru!"

Sesshomaru snapped back to the present, and pulled his power back tight within himself. He hadn't even realized that he'd lashed out with an oppressive wave of his power, a slip that annoyed him. It had been a long time since something like that had happened.

He glanced over to see how the humans had fared, and wasn't surprised to see that both agents had their hands in their jackets, likely ready to pull out their guns and shoot at a moment's notice. Cathleen had risen from her chair, and she looked tense, but not frightened. That was when it finally clicked in Sesshomaru's mind that Cathleen had been the one to call his name and snap him out of his rage.

"Anderson, Smith, I want you two to leave now," Cathleen said.

Both agents started. "Ms. President," one began, but Cathleen cut him off.

"That was an order," she snapped.

The agents hesitated a moment longer, but they finally left the room looking decidedly unhappy.

Sesshomaru pondered why Cathleen might have done that as she sat back down, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from her slacks. He could think of no sensible reason for her to have sent her bodyguards away.

"It sounds like you're going to need help," Cathleen said.

"I can handle this," Sesshomaru said, offended that she might think him weak.

"Maybe you can," Cathleen said, "but can you do it and not alienate the general human population? This rebellion is going to hurt your case in their eyes; it won't look as bad if you work with humans to stop it."

"I don't think America can do much about a war in Japan," Sesshomaru said dryly.

"Officially no," Cathleen said. "For official human help, you will have to ask the Japanese government, which I'd advise you to do. However, unofficially, I can give you a lot of help. After all, you're not just dealing with this rebellion; you're also dealing with Naraku whom you've already told us could become a global threat if left unchecked, and of course, the jewel shards."

If Cathleen meant to shock him, she succeeded.

"How do you know about the jewel shards?" Sesshomaru asked, dangerously calm.

Cathleen smirked, knowing she'd gotten one up on him. "That would involve the help I mentioned. You see, there is an elite group of warriors known as the Hunters that work for the President of the United States, and only the President."

"I've never heard of them," Sesshomaru said, though it galled him to admit ignorance about anything.

"You wouldn't have," Cathleen said. "Officially speaking, they don't exist. The only people who know about them are former presidents and England's current royal ruler."

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at that and Cathleen shrugged. "The Hunters used to be a part of the Knighthood that serves the royal family. The Hunters are descendents of those Knights that broke away on the side of the colonists during the American Revolution."

"Anyways, I try to keep one or two Hunters in each county so I can keep up with current events. One of my Hunters in Japan found your jewel shard and recognized it as both powerful and dangerous; in fact, we're betting that the jewel shards are part of why Naraku attacked you in the first place."

Oh yes, Cathleen had definitely outmaneuvered Sesshomaru in this conversation, and she knew it. Sesshomaru eyed her with a new respect; but this wouldn't happen again.

"No normal human should be able to tell that the jewel shards are anything but a pretty stone," Jaken objected.

Cathleen settled back in her chair looking smug. "Believe me; my Hunters are anything but normal."

Which explained why Cathleen accepted the differences in yokai better than most humans. Her offer intrigued Sesshomaru though. These Hunters might prove useful.

"How many of your Hunters are in Japan?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Nine," Cathleen said. "Originally there were only two, but after discovering the shards, they requested backup. At the moment they have all been assigned to searching for the jewel shards, and it was assumed they'd wind up running into Naraku that way. However, they could be redirected on a rescue mission for this Rin."

Now there was an appealing idea. But Sesshomaru was wary; if anything went wrong, Rin could easily be hurt or, even worse, killed. But Isia wouldn't be expecting humans to try and infiltrate her numbers to get Rin. It could work; but Sesshomaru refused to let them try anything without his presence.

"How good are your Hunters?" Sesshomaru asked.

Cathleen's blue eyes sparkled as she said, "Very good."

And so, the two began to make their plans.

* * *

Sango swung her backpack over her shoulder as she got ready to leave for school. "Bye Dad, bye Kohaku!" she called.

"See you after I get home from work," her father said.

Sango went out the front door, and froze as the door swung shut behind her. There, sitting on her front porch steps, was Miroku. "What do you want?" she asked, scowling.

Miroku stood and dusted his pants off. "I want to talk to you, Sango. We can't keep going on like this."

Sango walked past him, on the route they took every day to school. "Fine. What do you want to say?"

Miroku let out a sigh of frustration, but he kept pace with Sango. "What I want is for you to give me one good reason why you and I shouldn't date."

"Because it'll ruin our friendship," Sango said.

"I don't see how," Miroku replied. "It will certainly change our friendship, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing."

Sango grit her teeth. "You don't understand, Miroku."

Miroku grabbed her arm and pulled her around to face him. "Then make me understand. I want to understand, Sango, but you won't explain anything!"

Sango dropped her eyes away from Miroku's earnest, determined face. "It's because of my family."

Miroku's grip on her arm loosened a little. "Your family?" he asked, sounding confused.

"You've never met my grandparents," Sango said. "They've got to be the most miserable people I know; they absolutely hate each other, but they refuse to get a divorce because they come from a time when people just didn't do that. Or maybe they stay together out of spite, I don't know. My mom and dad are divorced, and Mom's second marriage is failing miserably. Dad's sister is on her fifth marriage, and Mom's brother just divorced his third wife."

Finally Sango looked up to meet Miroku's gaze. "Do you get it now, Miroku? Marriages in my family just don't work; it's like a curse or something. I couldn't stand it if you and I wound up hating each other. That's why we can only ever be friends."

Miroku closed his eyes. "I think I see your reasoning. However, I don't agree with it." He opened his eyes, pinning Sango to the spot with the intensity of his gaze. "You are not your relatives, and neither am I. Their marriages may have failed, but that doesn't mean a relationship between us would fail. Certainly we would have some hard times, every couple does, but that doesn't mean we couldn't work through them."

Miroku reached up and gently cupped Sango's face. "I care about you, Sango, more than you could possibly realize. I don't want to give you up."

Sango closed her eyes, savoring Miroku's touch even as her heart ached.

"Please, Sango, give us a chance."

Sango's lips trembled. She wanted to say yes so desperately, but at the same time she was so afraid. _I can't. I can't do this._

"I'll think about it," Sango said, looking up at him. "But I can't promise you anymore than that."

Miroku let her go with a sad smile. "That's not the answer I was hoping for, but it will do for now."

They walked on in silence then, until they met up with Kagome.

"Good morning," Kagome said cheerfully.

"Good morning," Miroku replied, and Sango echoed him.

"Is Inuyasha here today?" Sango asked.

"Nope," Kagome said. "I convinced him that I would still be safe if he let me go to school without him. After all, I have been going to school for years now, and I'm just fine."

Sango managed a smile. "Well, that could be debatable."

Kagome pretended to be offended. "Sango! That's just mean." She turned to Miroku. "Isn't Sango mean?"

Miroku looked thoughtful. "Actually, I think she may have a point."

Sango laughed at Kagome's exclamation. Miroku caught her eye and smiled, making Sango look away with a blush. Maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

The school day passed by in a blur, something Kagome was happy about. School seemed to have lost much of its appeal in light of what was going on now. _I know Mom said I need to think about college and stuff, and she's right, but for the moment I just don't care. The jewel just seems more important._

Actually, thinking of that…It would be cool if she could just skip college and work with yokai. After all, people knew about them now, and until humans and yokai were comfortable with each other, they'd need someone to be the go between.

_Yeah, right, like I'd ever be hired for something like that._

It'd be more fun than college though, at this point Kagome was certain.

"Do you know what Shippo has planned for us today?" Miroku asked.

Sango and Miroku were coming to Kagome's house in order to work on homework, and when they were done with that, train.

"No clue," Kagome said. "But I'm sure it's something extremely painful."

"Our last training session wasn't that bad," Sango protested.

Kagome made a face. "Maybe not, but he said something about making it more intense this time. Besides, you work out a lot, and I don't. That means I get sore quicker than you."

"I invited you to take classes with me, you know," Sango said.

The three of them fell into a good natured banter, and Kagome couldn't help but notice that the tension between Miroku and Sango had eased a bit. Hopefully that was a sign they'd worked everything out.

Crackling filled the air, and the ground at Kagome's feet seemed to explode, throwing her into the air. She hit the sidewalk hard enough to wind her, and she tried to sit up as she gasped for air. Sango had landed beside her but seemed to be in better condition, while Miroku had been thrown into a parked car.

Standing, actually _floating_, a few feet in front of them was what had to be a yokai. He was tall, with long blue hair, yellow eyes, and a dangerous smirk as he tossed ball of electricity from hand to hand.

"You've got something I want," he said to Kagome.

Kagome's grip on her backpack tightened. On impulse she had decided to keep the jewel shard with her wherever she went; now she realized that had been a bad idea.

_Why did I have to convince Inuyasha to stay home today?_

"Hand over your jewel, and I might not kill you," the yokai said.

Finally having gotten her breath back, Kagome glared at the yokai. "I don't think so." Then she did the only thing she could do when she had no weapon, and no way to defend herself. She yelled, "Run!" and the three of them took off down the street. Unfortunately, they didn't get far. The yokai hit Kagome in the back with that ball of electricity he'd been tossing around. Her backpack absorbed most of the damage, almost disintegrating as her charred school stuff scattered through the air. Kagome flew forward and hit the ground again, adding more scrapes to her collection.

"Pathetic," the yokai scoffed. "I ought to kill all three of you just because you're so weak."

Kagome pushed herself up to her knees. That last blow had hurt; if she lived through this, she was going to be sore the next day. Sango helped her get to her feet.

"Stay back!" Miroku ordered, placing himself between the yokai and the girls. He'd picked up a piece of wood from somewhere, Kagome had no idea where.

The yokai laughed. "What do you think you're going to do with that?"

He lunged then, and Miroku swung his piece of wood, and there was a flash of bright light. When the light cleared, there was a few feet of space between the yokai and Miroku, and the yokai looked a little singed.

"So you're a monk," the yokai said with narrowed eyes. He held out one of his hands, gathering a giant ball of electricity. "Pity you won't live long enough to get trained."

Kagome stared, horrified. _There's no way we can dodge that._

"Miroku, run!" Sango yelled.

Miroku didn't run though; he dropped the wood and held up the hand wrapped in prayer beads. Kagome didn't have time to wonder what he was doing, because without hesitation he yanked the beads off of his hand, creating a vortex that dragged yokai to him.

The yokai had still been floating in midair when Miroku did this, so he had nothing to grab onto to try and save himself. He screamed in denial and fear as the girls watched, frozen with horror, as he was sucked into the black hole in Miroku's hand. The moment the yokai disappeared, Miroku whipped the beads over his hand again.

The silence that followed seemed deafening. It was then that Kagome realized the area around them had been deserted by the panicked citizens that had been nearby when the fight started. Sirens wailed in the distance, getting steadily closer.

Sango stepped towards Miroku then, who was trembling and staring at his hand. She reached up and covered his hand with hers. "Let's get to Kagome's house before the police get here," she said quietly.

Miroku nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

Kagome paused only long enough to find the jewel shard, and then the three of them got out of there as quick as they could. When they stumbled into Kagome's house, Mrs. Higurashi was the first to see them. She dropped her laundry basket and rushed towards them. "What happened?"

"Can we sit down?" Kagome asked, suddenly feeling very weak.

Mrs. Higurashi ushered them into the living room where Inuyasha and Shippo met them. "What happened?" Inuyasha demanded grabbing onto Kagome's shoulders.

"We were attacked," Kagome said. "But it's okay, we're not hurt. Miroku…" Kagome faltered and looked over at him.

Miroku was sitting on the couch, staring glassy eyed at his fist which was balled so tightly around his prayer beads his knuckles were white.

"Mrs. Higurashi, could you take the girls to the kitchen and get them something to drink?" Shippo asked.

"Of course, come on girls," Mrs. Higurashi said, ushering Kagome and Sango away with Inuyasha following close behind.

Kagome glanced back one last time to see Shippo sit down beside Miroku. She hoped that the kitsune could do something to make Miroku feel better.

* * *

Miroku didn't even register Shippo's presence until the kitsune tapped his hand. Miroku looked at him, and saw an expression of complete understanding on his face. "You killed him, didn't you?" Shippo asked.

Miroku swallowed, trying his best not to vomit like he wanted to. "I had to. He was going to kill us."

Shippo nodded. "You're right."

"Then why do I feel so awful?" Miroku whispered, seeing once more the look of terror on the yokai's face right before he'd died.

"Because you're a good person," Shippo said. "I'm going to be honest with you, Miroku; killing someone never gets easier. It isn't supposed to get easy. And more likely than not, if you stay involved in this, you're going to have to kill again." Shippo placed a comforting hand on Miroku's shoulder. "But it helps if you remember why you killed in the first place."

Why he had killed…Miroku looked at the kitchen doorway, where he could just barely make out the sound of Sango and Kagome talking. He remembered the sight of them tossed on the ground, pale and frightened. He remembered the overwhelming urge to protect, and his resolve hardened, and his guilt eased somewhat, though it didn't go away fully.

"I'd do it again to keep them safe," Miroku said.

Shippo nodded. "I know. That's what makes you a warrior."

A warrior…Miroku didn't know whether or not he liked that title. But he'd saved Sango and Kagome, and right now that was all that was important.

* * *

Taro had risen in Rin's esteem. Not only had he fed her the night before, but he'd gotten her a blanket so she could sleep more comfortably. He'd also fed her breakfast before they left the reservation that morning, and he was carrying her now, because there was no way that she'd have been able to keep up with the yokai on her own.

Perhaps the only strange thing about Taro, other than the fact that he'd been much nicer to Rin than she'd expected after he'd taken her from Mr. Jaken, was that it seemed to take him longer to think about things than Rin was used to people having to take. This didn't really bother Rin though. It just seemed to be how Taro was.

Still, even if Taro seemed fairly nice, he still did whatever Isia told him to, which was not good. Rin was smart enough to realize that this meant she couldn't really trust Taro, even if he wasn't as scary as the other yokai were.

The group had been traveling pretty steadily, but now they stopped for some reason. Rin craned her neck to see over the crowd what everyone was looking at. They had made it to a town, but Rin couldn't see anything weird.

"What are those?" Taro asked.

"What are what?" Rin asked, trying to figure out what had confused the yokai.

Taro pointed at some cars. "Those," he said.

"You never saw cars before?" Rin asked.

Taro frowned. "Cars? What do they do?"

"You ride in them, and they take you from place to place really fast," Rin said.

"How do they work?" asked a sharp voice.

Rin shrank down in Taro's arms at the sound. More than any of the other yokai, Isia frightened Rin.

"How do they work, brat?" Isia asked again.

"Rin doesn't know," Rin said. "They just do."

Isia glared, obviously not happy with that explanation. Rin searched for something, anything, she could tell her. "Adults put gas in them to make them go."

"What other inventions do humans have?" Isia asked.

Rin hesitated. What could she tell her about that would make Isia leave her alone? There were all sorts of electronics that Isia might not know about if she didn't know about cars, but Rin didn't know how to explain how they worked.

Pain exploded on the side of Rin's face. "I asked you a question, brat, so you'd better answer me," Isia hissed.

Rin whimpered, as tears slipped down her face. No one had ever hit her before; not even her foster parents, who had been so good at being cruel, had ever actually laid a hand on her. "TV," she said, nearly crying out again as pain shot up her jaw. "Lights, computers, markers, ice cream, bouncy balls, video games, trains, air planes…"

"That's enough," Isia said, and Rin was happy to quit talking. Isia turned away from her and looked out at the town. She seemed to be thinking hard about something. "We will continue to the reservation," Isia finally announced. "That is our priority. We should be there by dawn."

The group started moving again, and Rin tried very hard not to cry loudly. After a while Taro gently touched the top of her head with his free hand. "It's not getting better," he said, sounding confused.

Rin shook her head. She was starting to get used to Taro's strange observations. "It takes a while for Rin to get better."

Taro frowned. "That's not good."

"It hurts," Rin whimpered.

Taro's frown deepened, and he was silent for a few minutes. Finally, he slowly said, "Isia was wrong." The words were spoken so softly, Rin almost missed them.

* * *

Koga went over the defenses they had come up with one more time. It was inevitable that Isia would attack them, and Koga wanted to make sure everything was ready. At this point though, all they could really do was wait.

Speaking of waiting…where were Ayame and Ginta? He'd expected them to be back by now. _I hope nothing bad happened to them._

"Koga!" Hakaku called, "Ginta's back!"

Koga ran to the gate, and got there just in time to see Ginta come in alone. "Where are Ayame and Jaken?" Koga demanded.

"They went to see Lord Sesshomaru, to tell him about the rebellion," Ginta answered. "And I've got bad news from Jaken."

Koga scowled. "What could be worse than a rebellion on our hands?"

"Apparently Lord Sesshomaru adopted a human girl, Rin," Ginta said, "and Isia kidnapped her to use as a hostage."

And that was infinitely worse.


	8. Chapter 8

Koga paced the walls of the reservation, waiting for dawn to arrive. Koga hoped that the dawn would bring good news with it, but he doubted that would happen. According to Ginta, Ayame and Jaken had gone to get Sesshomaru, but who knew how long it would take Sesshomaru to get to the reservation? Koga didn't have any idea when the humans might say Sesshomaru was free to leave, or if they even would. This situation may make the humans decide that it would be best to attack the yokai.

"I hate waiting," Koga growled. "I wish something would happen." Koga hated feeling so caged in. He'd even welcome Isia's inevitable arrival. At least then he'd have someone he could attack.

_But even then I'm going to have to be careful since she's got the kid._

Koga tensed then, feeling something at the edge of his senses. The other guards on the wall tensed as well, feeling the same thing Koga could. "They're here," Koga growled. "Get everyone into position!"

Yokai scrambled into place, and Koga stared out into the distance, trying to catch sight of the army that Isia had brought. They finally appeared through the trees and the morning fog; Koga was somewhat relieved to realize that Isia's army was much smaller than the one that he had. She had probably brought her best warriors with her, but the yokai on Koga's side weren't lightweights either.

The army stopped when it was still too far away to be attacked, and Isia stepped to the front of them. She called out to Koga and the others on the wall, her voice amplified somehow so it could be easily heard.

"Hear me, brethren! I will give you one chance to join me and live. Don't scoff at my offer! I do not want to weaken our people. I want us to be strong, to take our rightful places in life! That place is not cowering in prisons away from the humans, but ruling them as we should have all along! Sesshomaru has crippled us! And where is the great Lord Sesshomaru right now anyways? Begging for mercy from the humans! Should we stand for this? No!"

Koga gritted his teeth against the hypnotic suggestion in Isia's voice. "Don't listen to her!" Koga yelled. "She's trying to manipulate you!"

Most of his people held firm, but some jumped from the wall, going to join Isia's army. Koga gritted his teeth and gave an order he did not want to give. "Stop them."

There were a few well placed bursts of power, and the yokai were stopped. "Get them back over here, and keep the survivors restrained," Koga ordered. He hoped all of them were still alive, but it was doubtful.

"If this is your decision, then I have no choice but to attack," Isia said. "Know that what I do, I do for the good of our people!"

"Sure you are," Koga muttered. "And for the good of our people, I'm going to make sure you don't live out the day."

* * *

Rin clung to Taro, fear churning in her gut. They were going to be fighting? Oh, this was bad, really bad. Rin didn't want to be anywhere near a battle. What was she supposed to do?

"Taro," a yokai whose name Rin didn't know said. "Isia wants you to keep the brat out of the way until Sesshomaru shows up."

Taro nodded. "I will keep Rin safe."

The yokai rolled his eyes. "Just stay out of the way."

Taro took Rin away from the main group. He found a tall oak tree and with a jump settled into its branches. "No one will get you here," Taro said, gently patting Rin's head. "I will take care of you."

Rin couldn't help but smile, if only a little, at Taro's concern. She was certain that Taro would do his best to keep her safe. Still, Rin couldn't help but fear that something very, very bad was going to happen.

Yells filled the air, seeming to fulfill Rin's fears. She looked to see that the yokai had all joined in battle. Frightened, Rin buried her head in Taro's chest, not wanting to see the fight. She wanted to be away from this place, back in the home that Mr. Taisho had given her. Right then though, Rin wasn't entirely sure she'd ever see her home or Mr. Taisho again.

* * *

Were Sesshomaru a less dignified being, he would quite probably being tearing out his own hair by the roots. If he were completely devoid of restraint, he'd probably just kill all of the humans around him and rush to rescue his people on his own. However, Sesshomaru was very dignified and had lots of self control, and so he stood by calmly, if impatiently, waiting on Akihiko Ito.

_Why must it take so long for humans to get anything done? You'd think with how short their lives are, they would move things of importance along quickly._

Akihiko hung up the phone he had been using. "I have secured help to defeat this Isia. They have been informed they are to do nothing until you arrive."

Sesshomaru nodded. He had sent them towards the reservation that Isia had not taken over, and he didn't want the humans to accidentally attack the wrong people.

"How soon will you be able to get there?" Akihiko asked.

"Soon," Sesshomaru replied, and left. Once in the hallway, Jaken and Ayame appeared and began following him. "Ayame, you will scout the reservation that Isia took. Once you have an idea of her forces, you will report back to me. Jaken, you will stay with me."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru," Jaken said.

"I will complete my mission as quickly as I can," Ayame sad.

They had made it outside by this time. Not bothering with formal goodbyes, Ayame took off in the direction of the northern reservation. Sesshomaru gathered his power, wrapping himself and Jaken within its glow. They took off, heading for the southern reservation. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too late.

* * *

Krista peered around the tree, observing the chaos of the battle before them. It was difficult to tell who was on what side, because of the lack of uniforms. _Geez, I wish the boss had given us more information to work with._

When President Glenn had called them the day before with their new instructions, she hadn't given the Hunters much to work with. She'd told them where to go and that they would be taking orders from Sesshomaru; she had not told them to expect the reservation to be under attack.

_She probably didn't know that these people would be attacking so soon. And she said that Sesshomaru's enemies have a kid with them. Hope she's not in this mess._

"What do we do now?" Bankotsu asked.

"I'm thinking," Krista hissed back. She concentrated on the fighters, trying to See something, anything, that might be useful.

_Hello, what's this?_

Krista's eyes managed to pick up tiny pink spots on some of the yokai. Thin ribbons of light stretched from each person to center on one woman, but in the chaos Krista couldn't See anything about her. She could tell that the strings were connected to a jewel shard, however.

_She's using the jewel shard. But she isn't controlling them; the strings are way too thin for that. I think she's using it to influence them though._

Well, Krista knew which people they should attack, but none of the other Hunters would be able to See the signs that Krista could. She couldn't send them in that mess and risk them fighting the wrong person. Doing nothing wouldn't sit well with them, however.

"We can't get involved in that fight right now," Krista said. "But the boss said that the bad guys kidnapped a little girl. Bankotsu, you and your men split up and search the perimeter, just in case they brought her here. If you find her, report back to me immediately; do not attempt a rescue by yourself, understood?"

"We got it," Bankotsu sad. "Let's go, guys."

Saito shifted closer to Krista when the seven of them were gone. "It seems wrong not to help in the fight at all."

Krista looked up at him and smirked. "Did you bring your crossbow?"

Saito pulled out said crossbow, along with a quiver full of arrows that had been smeared with a poison designed just for yokai.

"I hope that old recipe works," Krista said.

"The one to knock yokai out did," Saito pointed out.

Krista nodded. "I point out the target and you shoot?"

Saito raised his crossbow. "As always."

Krista didn't try to stop her grin. This was going to be fun. She just hoped the yokai didn't realize where the arrows were coming from.

* * *

Suikotsu was leading the way around the perimeter of the battle, followed by Mukotsu and Ginkotsu. The others were traveling around the perimeter in the opposite direction.

"Do you think that they'd really bring the child here?" Mukotsu asked.

"I don't know," Suikotsu responded.

"It seems like it would be smarter for them to keep her away from the battle, where she might be rescued," Mukotsu said.

Suikotsu tried very hard not to roll his eyes. Ginkotsu almost never talked, but Mukotsu talked far too much.

A flash of orange caught Suikotsu's eyes, and he froze, waving Mukotsu silent. There, in the trees, about twenty yards from them was a yokai holding a little girl that must have been Rin. Frowning, Suikotsu studied them; the girl seemed scared, but strangely enough, she didn't seem scared of the yokai that was holding her. It was a bit hard to tell from this distance but, she seemed to be holding on to him for dear life. Troubled by this strange turn of events, Suikotsu motioned for the others to start heading back to Krista and Saito.

It took a few minutes, but they made it back safely, and found Krista and Saito sniping some of the yokai at the back of the battle. When they approached though, the two stopped and watched them come.

"Did you find any sign of the girl?" Krista asked.

"We found her," Suikotsu replied. "She's being watched by one of the yokai." Suikotsu paused, wondering whether or not to mention how Rin had been clinging to the yokai.

Krista's hazel eyes narrowed and Suikotsu had to wonder if she had any idea how unnerving her gaze was to those who knew what she could do. Probably.

"What aren't you telling me?" Krista asked.

Saito shifted, just a little, at Krista's words. It wasn't a movement that most people would take note of, but a trained warrior could recognize it as him getting ready to attack if Krista gave the word. It was strange, Saito's absolute devotion to Krista; Suikotsu thought Saito might even attack the President if Krista told him to.

"From what I could see, Rin didn't seem frightened of the yokai," Suikotsu said.

Krista's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "She wasn't?"

"Nope," Bankotsu said, strolling out of the trees, the others close behind him. "We saw them for ourselves. The girl was clinging to him like she was drowning or something."

Krista pursed her lips. "Strange…You'd think she'd be terrified."

"And here's one stranger than that," Jakotsu spoke up. "It looked like the yokai was trying to comfort her."

Krista rocked back on her heels, looking thoughtful. "Why would he do that? Unless…" Trailing off, she glanced up at Saito.

Saito scowled, not unusual, and then sighed. "Fine, let's go have a look."

And they probably would have without mishap if two fighting yokai hadn't blasted through the trees just then. The Hunters scattered, all getting out of range of the two creatures, both of whom paused and stared, stunned at the sight of the humans.

Krista's voice cut through the moment like a knife. "Kill the snake!"

Jakotsu's sword lashed out before anyone could move, slicing the scaly yokai into bits before he could try and defend himself. The other yokai, a fairly normal looking person if you ignored the mohawk and furry kilt, shifted into a fighting stance, but Krista spoke up again.

"We're here on Sesshomaru's orders!" she said holding up her hands in the universal "don't attack me" gesture.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" the yokai asked.

"You're just going to have to trust us for now," Krista said. "Besides, Sesshomaru's on his way here now; when he gets here he can let you know whether or not we're speaking the truth."

The yokai seemed to hesitate, but glancing back at the fight, he nodded. "Fine. I can get you in the compound. Follow me."

"Saito and I have something to take care of out here," Krista said. "The others will go with you." She sent Bankotsu a look that clearly said, "Don't do anything stupid."

"Whatever, just hurry," the yokai told them.

The seven of them followed the yokai, and Suikotsu couldn't help wondering what was going to happen to them now.

* * *

Krista watched them go, before turning to Saito. "Right, let's go check on the girl."

They crept through the woods, staying farther from the battlefield than they had previously. They did not need more battling yokai dropping in on them.

"Wait," Saito said, touching her shoulder. "Do you hear that?"

Krista strained her ears past the furious noise of battle to try and hear what Saito was talking about. Her eyes spotted them though long before her ears heard them.

_Human soldiers. Ah, crap. This is not going to be fun._


	9. Chapter 9

"You handle the soldiers Saito," Krista said. "Try and keep them out of the fight until Sesshomaru gets here."

Saito nodded. "Are you going after the girl?"

"Yeah," Krista said. She needed to see what Bankotsu and the others had been talking about.

Utilizing her training as a Hunter, Krista was able to slip away without the soldiers noticing her. Soldiers were good at what they did, but Hunters were better. Traveling quickly but keeping to the shadows, Krista soon found Rin and the yokai she was with.

Making sure she was in a place where the yokai couldn't see her, Krista focused all her attention on Seeing them. To her surprise, Rin was relying on this yokai to keep her safe; not only relying on him, but trusting him.

_She really believes that this guy will keep her safe…_

It was strange. Rin ought to be terrified of him, but she wasn't the least bit afraid of this yokai. Krista could See that Rin was afraid of someone, but it wasn't the tiger yokai guarding her now. As for the yokai himself…Well, he did not pose a threat to Rin. No, he wanted nothing more than to protect Rin.

Considering her options, Krista decided that the best thing to do for now was to leave Rin where she was. She was out of the way of the fight, and this yokai was certainly no danger to her. If Krista did take her it certainly wouldn't be without a fight, during which Rin may get hurt, not to mention Krista would have to carefully guard her the rest of the time they were here, and the things Krista needed to do would put Rin in danger.

_She'll be safer if I leave her here for now._

Krista slipped away through the trees back to where Saito was with the soldiers. She was pleased to see that Saito had succeeded in detaining them. Keeping hidden for the moment, Krista listened to what was being said.

"When is your boss going to show up?" one of the soldiers asked, presumably the guy in charge.

Saito glanced at him. "Sesshomaru will hopefully be here soon."

Krista smiled a little, pleased with the story Saito had come up with about the Hunters working for Sesshomaru. It was imperative that their connection to the United States President remain a complete secret. Pretending to work for Sesshomaru would do.

_We just need to make sure Sesshomaru finds out what the story is._

Which hopefully wouldn't be difficult; after all, Sesshomaru was a smart guy and President Glenn would most certainly have told him no one was to know who the Hunters really worked for.

_Although I still can't believe she told him about us._

It was a move that was unprecedented. No President had ever spoken of their existence to anyone, though in this case it had been necessary.

_I wonder how Chief will take it when he finds out what she did. He's a stickler for following the rules…I doubt he'll be happy._

Krista was distracted from her thoughts then by a bright swirl of light approaching in the sky. Focusing on it, Krista could See a man standing within the light. Krista's eyes widened as she watched him. This man was powerful, that much was glaringly obvious to her, and she had no doubt that this was Sesshomaru. But his power wasn't the only thing that jumped out at her.

Most people were obviously good or bad; people were much more black and white than they often liked to believe. And then there were the people who weren't. Privately, Krista called them the Grays. They were the people who ultimately wanted something good, but were willing to go to any lengths, some of which could be considered evil, in order to get that good goal. Sesshomaru was one of the Grays.

Inside, Krista groaned. _This guy is going to give me a headache. _

Sesshomaru landed nearby, and it was then that Krista saw the toad like person that was with him. The toad was of no importance at the moment though. Krista watched the soldiers' reactions; all of them tensed and clenched their guns tighter. Without so much as a flinch, Saito stepped forward. "We've been waiting for you, Lord Sesshomaru."

Whatever reply Sesshomaru might have made was cut off by an especially large blast of power. Peering back, Krista saw that the battle had gotten worse, and as far as she could tell, it looked as though the enemy was winning.

Sesshomaru seemed to have come to the same conclusion. "Form a perimeter," he snapped at Saito and the soldiers. "No one leaves this place."

Sesshomaru didn't wait to see if his orders would be obeyed, but launched himself into the battle. Keeping herself hidden, Krista watched to see what would happen next, though she already had a few ideas of what to expect.

* * *

Sesshomaru let his power roll out and slam into the fighting yokai, alerting all of them to his presence and his displeasure. Sesshomaru himself followed not even a second later, cutting his way into their midst with his poison whip.

_Where is she? Where is the foolish cat who thought she could take over?_

Isia didn't make herself immediately known, but a few yokai attacked Sesshomaru, apparently thinking their combined might would be enough to overpower him.

_Fools._

Sesshomaru dodged their strikes, and with a flick of his wrist, his whip tore into them and sliced them into pieces. He heard the crack of guns behind him as some of the yokai tried to run away and were cut down. Sesshomaru grit his teeth. His people would survive, no matter how many he had to kill to make it so.

There wasn't much fight left in Isia's troops though. As Sesshomaru glanced around, still searching for Isia, he saw many of the yokai that had followed Isia surrendering. None of them wanted to face the fury of the taiyokai.

Then Sesshomaru heard a hiss from behind him, and dodged just as slivers of ice shot past him and imbedded themselves into the ground.

_There she is._

Isia stood behind him, a sword in her hand, and the light of battle shining in her eyes. "Today is the day you die!" she said, and launched herself at him.

* * *

Krista was so involved watching the result Sesshomaru's presence had on the fighting yokai, she almost missed the fact that one was sneaking off to where they had stashed Rin.

Kicking herself for not seeing this coming, Krista broke cover, barely avoided being shot by startled soldiers, and called, "Saito, they're going after the girl!"

Saito joined her in running towards where Rin was; Krista could only hope they wouldn't be too late.

_Stupid! I've should have gone to get her as soon as Sesshomaru showed up._

As long as Sesshomaru hadn't been there, Rin had been safe because they needed to keep her alive. But now that Sesshomaru was here, they'd be trying to use the girl against him.

Desperately hoping she wasn't too late, Krista made it to the tree where Rin had been kept, but found she wasn't there, nor was the yokai that had been with her.

_Where is she?_

The only consolation to the fact that Rin was missing was that the yokai that had come to get her didn't seem to know where she was either. Krista wasn't going to give him the chance to find out.

Without hesitation, Krista jumped up the tree where the yokai was, making the soldiers notice him finally. A flick of her wrist and her throwing knives buried themselves deep into the yokai's chest. Unfortunately, this didn't kill the yokai, but only served to anger him.

The yokai lashed out at her, and Krista ducked, her movements hampered by the tree. With little other choice, Krista launched herself forward, slamming her shoulder against the knife handles. Krista's momentum combined with the fact that the yokai did not move, caused the knives to bury themselves in the yokai up to the end of the handles. It also meant Krista wasn't able to dodge when the yokai snatched her up by the throat.

"You little wretch," the yokai snarled, and then bullets whizzed by centimeters from Krista's face and hit the yokai in the head. Krista closed her eyes tightly as blood and other things she didn't particularly want to think about splashed her face and chest. The dead yokai's grip on her slackened and she fell out of the tree, but with a quick twist, Krista managed to land on her feet.

Krista wiped the blood off her face with her coat sleeve and glanced at Saito who was still holding his gun at the ready. "Remind me to put poison on my knives later," Krista said. Maybe then she wouldn't have to rely on Saito to save her…And she'd be hearing about this later, she just knew it.

Krista shoved those thoughts out of her head as currently unimportant. She needed to find Rin. _The yokai must have taken her away when the soldiers showed up._

But where would he have taken her?

"We need to split up," Krista started, but Saito interrupted her.

"No."

Krista opened her mouth to argue, but thought better of it when she Saw that nothing she said would change Saito's mind. "Fine, let's go."

* * *

Isia dodged another of Sesshomaru's attacks by a hair. Thanks to the shard, she had lasted much longer than she would have otherwise, but even with the shard she wasn't strong enough to kill Sesshomaru.

_How strong is this guy?_

Too strong; their fight had been too drawn out, and her forces were decimated, either killed or turned traitor.

_I can't win_.

Not yet, anyways. She needed more jewel shards. Realizing that continuing this fight would only get her killed, Isia searched for a way to escape. She was pretty sure she could get past the humans, if only she could get Sesshomaru to back off a minute.

_Where is Kuni with that girl?_

It didn't matter; she had no time to wait for anyone. Summoning up a burst of power, Isia lashed out at Sesshomaru with a wave of sharp ice, making him back up just a bit. Thick ropes of hair wrapped around his wrists and legs then, courtesy of Yura. It only held Sesshomaru for a second, but a second was all Isia needed.

"Retreat!"

Isia froze the humans that tried to stop her and broke past their line. As she fled she was joined by other yokai from her group that had managed to escape. Isia kept them moving for over an hour, until she was certain that they weren't being followed. Then she brought them to a stop to see what damage they had endured.

Doing a quick head count, Isia found that she only had about thirty yokai left with her. Some of them were wounded, and none were happy.

"Well, that went great," snarled Kenji, a kitsune about Isia's age. "What happened to you killing Sesshomaru, huh?"

Isia bristled, though inside she was scared by Kenji's words. If they mutinied now, Isia would have no hope of succeeding. "I could have beaten him," Isia said hotly. Glancing around, she found her scapegoat.

"This is all your fault!" she hissed, while Taro looked confused and the human brat coward behind him.

Isia stalked towards him and slapped him hard, letting her claws dig into his flesh enough to cause long thin cuts on his face. "Where were you? If you'd been where we left you we could have used the girl against Sesshomaru and I would have won!"

Taro shrank from her anger, looking hurt and confused. Isia had never lashed out at him like this before; of all the yokai that knew him, Isia had always had the most patience with Taro. Most of the yokai on the reservation tended to act like he didn't exist. No one could say for sure what it was about Taro they didn't like; there was just a feeling of wrongness about him. Isia had heard before that in the old days when yokai were free, they would kill any young that were born like Taro (they didn't now because their numbers were so low). When she'd first heard that, she'd thought it was awful, but in her current temper, she thought it might have been a good idea.

"But the humans might have hurt Rin," Taro said.

"Do you think I care about that?" Isia snarled. "If we'd had her, we would have won! Our loss is your fault! It's your fault our people died!"

Taro wilted against her words, and the other yokai began muttering against him as well. Isia was flooded with relief that she still had control of them. She wouldn't feel guilty knowing that to keep control she'd had to put a target on Taro's back. She wouldn't.

"Let's get back to the reservation," Isia said. "Sesshomaru's sure to be following us soon, and we'll need to be ready."

* * *

Krista sighed in frustration. She and Saito could keep following the trail the yokai had left in order to find Rin, but there was no way they'd catch up to them anytime soon. "We'd better get back to Sesshomaru and the others," Krista said.

_Hopefully Bankotsu and them haven't done anything stupid…And please don't let Jakotsu flirt with anyone while I'm not around to save him…Especially Sesshomaru…_

"Krista," Saito said as they started back.

_I knew this was coming._

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have gone up against that yokai on my own, I could have gotten myself killed," Krista said with a sigh.

"Yes, you could have," Saito said, his tone dark.

"Three knives to the chest generally kills anyone," Krista said. "How was I supposed to know he'd survive?"

"You should have left it to me," Saito said.

Krista rolled her eyes in frustration. She knew Saito only acted like this because he cared about her, but still it was annoying. "Just because I'm not a Weapons Master like you doesn't mean I'm helpless, Saito."

"You were," Saito countered.

"I wasn't! I had more knives, Saito! A knife through the eye would have made him let go of me, and wouldn't have gotten me near as filthy, I might add," Krista said. Not that she'd been meaning to complain about how dirty she'd gotten when Saito had shot the yokai; he had after all done it to save her.

Saito retreated into stony silence, and a glance told Krista he was still mad. She sighed. "Look Saito, we've been through this before. I'm a Hunter just like you, and you know I'm good at what I do. I don't need you to babysit me all the time. If you do, you'll wind up losing sight of the mission."

"You're more important than the mission," Saito said.

Krista winced. She had hoped he wouldn't say that. She looked at him firmly. "Nothing is more important than the mission."

Saito didn't argue, but she could See he didn't agree with her.

_Saito, why'd you have to go and do this?_

Krista liked Saito. They were a good team, and complemented each other well. However, Saito was far too attached to Krista. In all honesty, he had been too attached for some time now, but this was the first time that Saito had refused orders during a fight to try and keep her safe. Not that them splitting up would have made a difference in the long run, but what if Saito refused orders again at a more crucial time? His feelings for Krista made him a liability, and left Krista with no choice.

_I'm going to have to call Chief and request a new partner._

Which was going to be a pain, because there were very few Hunters who were comfortable around Krista. The fact that Krista's Sight didn't bother Saito was one of the big reasons they'd been partnered together.

Krista Looked at Saito. She'd scared him badly when the yokai had gotten her, she could tell. He'd panicked; afraid he was going to lose her. He still hadn't entirely calmed down yet, and wouldn't until Krista had gotten all the blood cleaned off.

Krista sighed again. Even if Saito wouldn't be her partner for much longer, she could still do her best to calm him down for now. "I'm sorry I worried you."

Saito made a small noise that could have meant anything, but Krista could See some of the tension leaving him.

"Now let's see if we can deal with Sesshomaru," Krista muttered.

Krista wove her way through the crowd of people, glancing around and trying to take everything in at once. From what she could See, the humans and yokai were both wary of one another, and they were staying segregated into their own groups. Krista pursed her lips. It would be difficult for them to work together if they didn't trust each other.

"They're over there," Saito said.

Krista looked in the direction that Saito had pointed out and saw Bankotsu and his group of men. They all looked unharmed, and seemed to be staying out of the flow of things for now, which was good. Not far off from them were Sesshomaru, a wolf yokai whose name Krista didn't know, and the general of the humans.

Krista made her way over to them, Saito close on her heels. "How'd things go on your end?" she asked Bankotsu.

"Pretty well," Bankotsu said. "What about you? Did you get the girl?"

Krista scowled. "When the soldiers showed up the yokai guarding her took off. We won't be able to catch up with them tonight."

Bankotsu glanced over at Sesshomaru. "Doubt he'll be happy to hear that."

Krista grimaced. "Leave that to me." She'd be able to handle Sesshomaru better than anyone; not that Sesshomaru would be easily handled by anyone, even someone who could see into his soul.

Krista approached Sesshomaru, but stopped several feet away and waited for Sesshomaru to acknowledge her presence. She knew that barging up to him and demanding that he listen to her report would only annoy him, and Sesshomaru was angry enough right now without being annoyed further.

_Although 'angry' doesn't really begin to cover it._

Infuriated would be a better term. Howling for blood on the inside would be another good way to describe it. It was a testament to Sesshomaru's discipline and iron will that he was taking time to make sure everyone was okay, the humans and yokai weren't going to start killing each other, and all the other little details that a good leader needed to see to rather than chasing after Isia and ripping her limb from limb like he really wanted to do.

Eventually the general (whose name Krista really needed to find out at some point), left to deal with his troops, and Sesshomaru turned his golden eyes on Krista. His was an unnerving gaze, even though Krista could See that Sesshomaru had no intentions of harming her. At least, not right now, while she wasn't a threat to him or his people.

_Remind me never to make this guy mad._

Oh, wait, her news was about to do just that.

…_Dang it._

Krista steeled her nerves and approached him. "Sir, I don't believe we've been formally introduced yet. I'm the current leader of your special troops, Eyes."

Sesshomaru didn't react, but the wolf yokai snorted. Well, it was a rather obvious alias, but Krista had no intentions of telling them her real name. Yokai might be the first non-humans that Krista had ever dealt with, but they weren't the first non-humans that the Hunters had ever dealt with, and one of the first lessons a young Hunter-in-training learned was that you never told anyone your real name.

Not that many modern Hunters really believed the old stories about fighting metee-kolen-ol, dealing with azeban tricks, and things like that. But when faced with the existence of yokai, and given the fact that Sesshomaru had told the UN that elves, fairies, yokai and the like were all the same race given different names by humans, Krista was forced to believe these stories were true, and she would proceed according to the rules she'd been taught as a child.

"Report," Sesshomaru said.

"I saw Rin, and the guy who had her," Krista said. "Unfortunately, he spooked when the soldiers showed up and got away."

Sesshomaru eyed the blood splattered over her clothes and in her hair.

"I ran into a bit of trouble when I tried to follow them," Krista said dryly.

Well, Sesshomaru certainly wasn't pleased to hear her news, but he accepted it with more self control than Krista had expected.

_I wouldn't want to be Isia when Sesshomaru catches up to her,_ Krista thought. Every bit of the rage he felt was locked away inside of him, all pointing to one end goal; to find and kill Isia.

Sesshomaru turned slightly and called, "Hakkaku. Take Eyes and her men somewhere they can wash up and rest." Sesshomaru glanced back at Krista. "We will wait to move out until my scout returns with information."

Krista nodded her head in acceptance. "As you wish, sir."

Hakkaku turned out to be the yokai that had led Bankotsu and his band into the fray. "Come on," Hakkaku said. "I'll show you somewhere out of the way you can stay."

Krista followed him. She had a feeling they were going to have a long day ahead of them, and the Hunters could use whatever rest they were able to get.

* * *

Metee-kolen-ol-Evil wizards with hearts of ice from Abenaki mythology.

Azeban-A raccoon or wolverine trickster spirit from Abenaki mythology.


	10. Chapter 10

Kagome sat up in her bed Tuesday morning, staring blearily at her clock. Her mother had offered to let her skip school after what had happened yesterday, and Kagome was seriously considering taking that offer, if only to get another hour or two of sleep.

_And what if I go and I get attacked again? What if I'm attacked while I'm at school, and people can't get out of the way? What if Miroku isn't there to save me?_

Kagome shoved those thoughts out of her mind. She refused to live her life based on fears of 'what if's', which was why she had to go to school today. If she didn't, the yokai that had attacked them would have beaten her, no matter that Miroku had killed it.

Kagome climbed out of bed then to start getting ready for her day. When she opened her bedroom door however, she was startled to find Inuyasha sitting in the doorway.

"Inuyasha? What are you doing?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha stood up, a look of determination on his face. As Kagome's gaze followed him, it occurred to her just how tall Inuyasha was. He wasn't ridiculously tall, not like Sesshomaru was, but the top of Kagome's head just barely made it to Inuyasha's chin.

"From now on I'm not leaving you alone," Inuyasha said firmly. "I'm going to follow you wherever you go."

When Inuyasha said that, with that look on his face and in his eyes, it caused warmth to spread through Kagome's body. Then the meaning of the words sank in.

"What do you mean you're following me everywhere?" Kagome snapped.

"I left you alone yesterday and you got attacked!" Inuyasha said. "I won't let that happen again."

Kagome tried to reign in her rising temper. She understood where Inuyasha was coming from, and on the one hand, it was kind of sweet. On the other hand, Inuyasha was saying he was going to follow her _everywhere._ When she was in her room changing, or on a private phone call, Inuyasha would be right outside her door. When she was in the bathroom taking a shower or taking care of other business, he'd be right outside the door there, where he could hear everything. If she just wanted to be alone so she could think, Inuyasha would be there.

Kagome was not about to allow this.

"I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe," Kagome said, "but could you at least not follow me around in my own house?"

"What if an enemy got in here?" Inuyasha asked.

"I'm sure you or Shippo would notice someone trying to sneak onto the property," Kagome said.

"I'm not going to take the chance that we'll miss someone," Inuyasha said.

Which was sweet, it really was. But it was also annoying.

It was time to pull out the same trick she'd used to get Inuyasha to agree to visit Kaede.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said sweetly, "are you saying you're not strong enough to notice if a yokai is trying to get into my house?"

Inuyasha bristled. "Of course I'm strong enough!"

"Then there's no need to follow me around," Kagome said.

Inuyasha shook his head. "I won't take the chance of making a mistake."

Kagome huffed. So much for that tactic.

"Inuyasha, I trust you!" Kagome said in frustration. "I trust you to keep me safe without having to follow me everywhere in my own house! Why can't you trust yourself as much as I do?"

That stumped him. He hesitated without saying anything.

"You really don't think you're good enough, do you?" Kagome asked.

Inuyasha jerked back, looking offended. "Of course I'm good enough!" But beneath the bluster, Kagome could see the fear; the fear that he just wouldn't measure up.

_I'm going to slap Sesshomaru silly next time I see him!_

"Then believe that, and don't follow me around in the house!" Kagome said.

There wasn't any way Inuyasha could really argue with that, so he crossed his arms and looked away. "Keh, whatever."

Impulsively, Kagome leaned up on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. Inuyasha's eyes widened, and his cheeks turned red. Kagome smiled at him and said, "Thank you for worrying about me." Then she skipped off to the bathroom, leaving him standing in the hall.

* * *

Inuyasha touched his cheek where Kagome had kissed him. What was that all about? He would never understand women. Reluctantly, he went downstairs. He wanted to stay upstairs with Kagome, but she'd made it clear enough that Inuyasha wasn't supposed to follow her around while they were in the house. He wasn't sure he could look at her without blushing right now anyways.

In the living room, Shippo was showing Souta some kitsune tricks. Inuyasha settled in a corner of the room, out of the way and unnoticed.

_It's like being back in the palace._

When Inuyasha had wandered the corridors then, if he hadn't been attacked he was ignored, as if he didn't even exist. Being ignored like that had almost been worse than being abused. At least when someone tried to hit him, they were acknowledging the fact that he was alive.

Shippo was showing Souta fox fire now, and the boy was elated at the sight of fire that he could actually hold (though only with Shippo's help).

"This is so awesome!" Souta said. "And it won't ever actually burn anything?"

"Nope," Shippo said cheerfully. "It's useful though if you just want to startle someone, or figuring out where people are in the dark."

Souta frowned. "Finding people in the dark?"

"If you manage to set someone on fire with this, there's no way they could hide, now is there?" Shippo asked with a wink.

"I guess you're right," Souta said. Suddenly his face brightened. "Hey, where's Inuyasha?"

Wondering what Souta was thinking, Inuyasha walked over and tapped him on the head. Souta turned towards him with a grin. "Catch!"

Inuyasha jerked when the fox fire hit him in the chest and spread rapidly over his whole body.

"I can see you!" Souta said excitedly. "Well, kinda anyways."

Inuyasha glared at the kitsune, even though the fire couldn't actually relay the expression he was wearing. "Turn it off!" He punctuated his order with a wave of his hand, hoping Shippo would get the message.

"You're no fun, Inuyasha," Shippo said, apparently getting what he meant. Shippo snapped his fingers and the fire went out.

Kagome came down the stairs then, wearing her school uniform. Inuyasha still didn't approve of the outfit (for all the same reasons he liked to see her wear it).

"I'm off to school," she said.

"Is Inuyasha going with you?" Shippo asked.

"Yep," Kagome said.

"Good," Shippo said. "We don't want a repeat of yesterday. Don't forget to come straight home today, and bring Sango and Miroku with you. We obviously need to get through the training quicker."

Kagome grimaced at the thought of more training, but she didn't protest, which was good. Kagome needed to be stronger. Hopefully Inuyasha would always be around to protect her, but if he wasn't, he wanted her to be able to take care of herself.

"Let's go, Inuyasha," Kagome said, and they walked out the door.

It wasn't long before they met up with Sango and Miroku. Inuyasha eyed Miroku, who seemed to be doing better than he had been the night before. Inuyasha could sympathize with Miroku's shock. The first kill was never easy. Once the adrenalin left your system, all that was left was the sickening realization that a person was dead, and it was all your fault.

For Inuyasha at least, killing had gotten easier as time had gone by. He didn't enjoy killing, and if he didn't have to kill someone he wouldn't. But if someone tried to kill him or someone he cared about, then Inuyasha would do everything in his power to make sure that person died. It was the way life worked.

Sango and Miroku broke off their conversation as Kagome called out to them. "Morning, guys!"

Inuyasha trailed after the group, only half paying attention to what they were talking about. Most of his attention stayed on their surroundings, trying to make sure no yokai was sneaking up on them. He stayed on high alert all day, roaming around the outside of the school. Luckily no danger presented itself, and the school day went by without incident.

Shippo was waiting for the teens when they arrived at Kagome's house. "Get changed, and let's get started."

In less than ten minutes, they were outside in the unofficial training area. Inuyasha settled off to the side to watch, knowing he wouldn't be much use in this since only Kagome could see him anyways.

"Inuyasha, you're going to work with Sango," Shippo said, startling everyone.

"Um, I can't see him," Sango pointed out.

Shippo grinned. "You can if I coat him with fox fire."

Inuyasha groaned. "Not that again."

"Kagome, where is he?" Shippo asked.

"Right over there," Kagome said pointing.

Inuyasha didn't try to dodge when Shippo lobbed a ball of fox fire over at him. The flames coated his body as he stood and walked over to them.

"Useful," Miroku said.

"Why does he want me to work with Sango?" Inuyasha asked Kagome. "What's he going to be doing?"

"Inuyasha wants to know what you'll be doing while he's working with Sango," Kagome said.

"I'm going to be helping you two learn to access your spiritual abilities more easily," Shippo said.

Sango seemed to tense a little at that, but Inuyasha wasn't sure why. It wasn't like Shippo training them was going to affect her any.

Inuyasha was more worried about how he was supposed to teach Sango anything when he couldn't even speak to her and what exactly was he supposed to be teaching her anyways? It wasn't like he'd paid any attention to her fighting style before.

Shippo took Kagome and Miroku off with him, and Sango turned to Inuyasha, tense and more than a bit annoyed. "So, what now?" she asked.

_Guess we could always start with sparring so I can see where she's at._

Inuyasha dropped into a fighting stance, and Sango quickly followed suit, even taking the initiative to throw the first punch.

_She's good,_ Inuyasha thought. _Really good, for a human. But she's not good enough to fight a yokai._

She was fast and strong, but not fast or strong enough. She had no edge to let her hold her own with yokai. Inuyasha could take her down any time he wanted, and judging by the look of frustration on her face, she knew it too.

Suddenly, Inuyasha understood her tension from earlier. Kagome and Miroku both had natural born gifts (and in Miroku's case, one not so natural gift) that let them be dangerous to yokai, and Sango didn't. She was the weak link of the group, and she didn't like it, but didn't know how to change it.

Inuyasha knew what that felt like, to be weaker than everyone else. But there was no reason why she should have to be. The Slayers of Inuyasha's time had been completely normal humans. They'd used special weapons that gave them an equal chance, as well as learning how to turn a yokai's strength against them.

_Sango has potential,_ Inuyasha thought. _Five hundred years ago, she'd have been a great Slayer._

But who was going to teach her that sort of thing now?

* * *

Kagome was relieved when Shippo finally called an end to their training session. Despite the fact she hadn't done much that was physical, she still felt utterly exhausted. She was getting better at summoning her power though; she still didn't get it every time, but she managed to summon it most of the time. Surprisingly, Miroku was mastering his power quicker than she was.

_Well, it's over for today,_ Kagome thought. "Man, all I want to do now is have a quick dinner, and hit the hay."

"Don't you still have homework?" Miroku asked.

Kagome slumped in despair. "Miroku! Did you have to remind me?"

They came upon Sango and Inuyasha then. Sango was sweaty and panting for breath, while Inuyasha didn't look like he'd been working out at all.

"If training is over, tell Shippo to turn off the fire," Inuyasha said.

"Eh, Shippo, Inuyasha wants you to put out the fire now," Kagome said.

"Sure," Shippo said, and with a snap of his fingers, the blue flames sputtered out.

Souta burst out the front door. "Guys, guys! The UN came to a decision about the yokai and they're announcing it now! Come quick!"

They ran into the living room in time to hear the announcer say, "So while some countries have decided it is too dangerous to allow yokai to live among them, there are other countries that have decided to give yokai a chance. The countries that will allow yokai to stay there are our own Japan, the United States of America…"

Kagome clapped her hands together as the reporter kept listing countries. "This is wonderful!"

Shippo looked pleased. "It's definitely better news than we were expecting. We just might be able to avoid having a third World War after all."

Kagome grinned, envisioning the world just a few years from now, humans and yokai living side by side in harmony.

_And to think, I will have been a part of making that happen._

* * *

Ayame crouched in the forest outside of the reservation that Sesshomaru had sent her to scout. She was keeping track of the sentries on top of the wall. There weren't very many up there, which meant either Isia hadn't left a very large force behind, or they were overconfident. Either would work in Sesshomaru's favor.

Keeping out of sight, Ayame circled around the reservation, until she found a large gap in the guards. With a burst of speed, Ayame dashed across the ground, and used her momentum to send herself up the wall. Crouching down where she'd landed, Ayame checked to be sure no one had seen her. Satisfied on that count, Ayame peered over the wall into the reservation. It looked like most of the yokai still in the reservation had moved into a large encampment near the walls. Ayame quickly counted their numbers, though most of them seemed to be either children or elderly.

_Isia must have taken most of the warriors with her,_ Ayame thought.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Ayame's head snapped up when a sentry yelled at her. Reacting quickly, Ayame threw a handful of leaves at him that, with a flare of her yoki, became dangerously sharp. In the second that the leaves blinded him, Ayame was over the wall and running away.

_Time to find Sesshomaru and report what I've seen,_ Ayame thought, heading towards the other reservation. Hopefully the fight against Isia down there had gone well.

She'd been traveling a few hours when she sensed a group of yokai coming towards her. Ayame dove into a clump of bushes and hid there, trying her best to mask her presence. Luckily for her, the group of yokai was too busy trying to get to their destination to pay much attention to their surroundings. Peering out from the bushes, Ayame recognized Isia before they disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Ayame allowed herself a grim smile as she started on her way again. _I guess the fight went well for us after all._


	11. Chapter 11

The sun was just peaking over the horizon when Ayame made it to the reservation. She wasn't too surprised to find the camp of human soldiers around the outside of the reservation, or to find Sesshomaru moving among them.

Sesshomaru's attention immediately focused on her when she entered the camp. "Report," he ordered.

"Isia didn't leave many forces at the other reservation," Ayame told him. "It's mostly children and elderly."

Sesshomaru nodded, looking neither pleased nor upset at the news.

"I passed Isia and her band of yokai on my way here from the other reservation," Ayame told him.

Sesshomaru's eyes sharpened. "Was Rin with them?"

Ayame nodded. "Yes, sir. I don't know what her condition was though; I didn't get a good enough look at them for that."

Sesshomaru seemed to think about this for a moment. "Ayame, take Shippo a message. Tell him that Kagome is to forget about school and look for the jewel shards full time. She needn't worry about her education or employment; as of now, she works for me. Once you have done that, meet me at the other reservation."

Ayame nodded, thinking, _He must be planning to head to the other reservation today if he wants me to meet him there._

"Mind if one of my men goes with her?"

Ayame started at the unfamiliar voice. Who was this human? She wasn't dressed like a soldier, so that meant she must be one of those "Hunters" President Glenn had talked about.

Sesshomaru cut his eyes at her. "Why?"

She brushed some strands of hair back from her face looking amused. "If you'll recall, that was our original mission."

"A human will only slow me down," Ayame objected.

The human just smiled. "Jak can keep up."

"You may send him," Sesshomaru said, and walked away, clearly done with the conversation.

Ayame scowled as the human smiled brightly. "If you'll follow me, I'll take you to Jak."

"What's your name, anyways?" Ayame asked as she followed the woman.

"I go by Eyes," she answered.

"Seriously?" Ayame asked, not meaning to be rude; she was just startled by the strange name.

"Seriously," Eyes answered, her expression twinkling in amusement.

They made it to a quieter edge of camp where, Ayame counted quickly, eight males lounged around in various states of repose.

"Jak," Eyes said, and one of the men (a feminine looking guy with his black hair clipped up and a sword strapped to his back) stood up.

"Yes, Eyes?" he asked cheerfully.

"You're to go with Ayame; she's going to see one Kagome Higurashi. Kagome will be searching for the jewel shards, and you are to help her."

"Can do!" Jak said, throwing up a playful salute.

"You sure it's a good idea to send him by himself?" a man with his long black hair tied in a braid asked.

"Yes, Ban, I'm sure," Eyes said. "The rest of you will have plenty to do here."

Jak bounced over to Ayame. "So, when do we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready, I guess," Ayame said. She was still annoyed that he got to come with her at all.

"We're in luck then, because I'm ready now," Jak said.

Ayame tossed her hair over one shoulder. "Then try to keep up."

* * *

As they walked home, Sango did her best to try and clear up the aura of gloom around Kagome. "Come on Kagome, you couldn't have done that badly on your test."

"Even if you did, it's not like one bad grade will make you fail the class," Miroku added. "And I'm sure your mother won't be upset with you; after all, we have been busy with the jewel shards and all that."

Kagome kept her eyes on the ground, her shoulders slumped in despair.

"If it makes you feel better, I didn't do as good as I normally would either," Miroku said. "I only got an eighty seven."

Sango glared at him. "I got a seventy five!"

Kagome hunched in on herself more. "You two aren't helping."

"What did you make?" Miroku asked Kagome.

Reluctantly, Kagome handed her test over to Sango. Sango looked at the grade and winced. "A forty two. Ouch."

"You can still come back from that," Miroku said. "You'll just have to study more. I'll even help you if you'd like."

Kagome threw up her hands in frustration. "But I don't want to study more! And when do I have time for that anyways? During the day we go to school; right after school we have training with Shippo. When we're done with that, it's time for supper, and then I have to finish my homework! By the time I'm done with it, I'm exhausted and practically pass out! And weekends won't give me more free time, because then we're supposed to go shard hunting!"

Kagome kicked a pebble angrily. "Knowing Naraku is out there waiting to destroy the world kind of makes school seem not so important."

"We don't know that he wants to destroy the world," Sango said.

"Whatever, you get what I mean," Kagome said.

"We do," Miroku said. "But in the long run, school will be important to your future."

Kagome sighed heavily. "I know. I'll figure it out."

They made their way into the house, where they found Shippo with Ayame the wolf yokai they'd briefly met the other day and a stranger. The stranger was a man, who could have been human or yokai, Sango wasn't too sure at the moment.

"Um, hello," Kagome said.

"Kagome," Shippo said, hopping up from his seat beside Ayame. "You've met Ayame and this is Jak. Sesshomaru sent them." He turned back to Ayame and Jak. "Jak, this is Kagome, and her friends, Miroku and Sango."

Ayame stood up and strode over to Kagome. "I have a message from Lord Sesshomaru," she said.

Sango crossed her arms and frowned, even though the words weren't directed at her. She didn't like the authoritative tone in the other woman's voice.

"He wants you to drop out of school and look for the jewel shards full time," Ayame said. "You needn't worry about future employment, because as of now, you work for him." She glanced at Miroku. "After discussing things with Shippo, we've decided to extend this offer to you as well. We're certain that if Lord Sesshomaru knew you also had spiritual abilities he would have done so himself."

Kagome looked stunned. "Er, what would working for him entail?"

"Jewel hunting," Shippo said. "Once we've found all the jewel shards, you might receive assignments to help contain rouge yokai, or maybe work as an emissary between humans and yokai."

"How much do we get paid for this?" Miroku asked.

Shippo smirked. "How much do you want?"

As the conversation continued, Sango really hoped that none of her emotions were showing on her face. She'd been afraid something like this was going to happen. Kagome and Miroku were moving on, going on daring adventures to save the world, and she was going to be left behind, because she wasn't useful. She wasn't good enough. She wasn't _special._

It wasn't fair! Sango was used to being the strong one of their little group. How many times had she defended Kagome from bullies when they were kids? How many times had she saved Miroku from crazy ex-girlfriends?

How was she supposed to handle being weak?

"Oh, Sango, isn't this great?" Kagome gushed, hugging her.

"Yeah, great," Sango said.

Kagome pulled back, surprised at her tone. "Sango…?"

Sango turned and left, walking as quickly as she could without actually running. She might not be strong enough to be of any use in their fight against Naraku, but she was certainly strong enough to break down in front of them.

"Excuse me miss!"

Sango paused at the unfamiliar voice, and looked back to see the man Shippo had introduced as Jak following her. She scowled at him. "What do you want?"

"I want to help you," Jak said with a smile.

"I don't need your help," Sango snapped stalking away. But his next words stopped her in her tracks.

"What you need is to be needed," Jak said. "And right now, you aren't."

Sango glared at him. "And you think you can change that?"

"I think with the right training, you can change that," Jak said.

Sango pursed her lips. Should she really be considering an offer like this from a total stranger? Yes, she decided. If it would put her on equal standing with Miroku and Kagome again, she most definitely should.

"Okay," Sango said. "Teach me."

Jak smiled. "Great! Just let me tell the others, and we'll be on our way!"

* * *

Inuyasha caught Kagome's arm as she tried to go after Sango. "Leave her alone," Inuyasha said.

Kagome rounded on him. "I'm not leaving her alone! She's upset!"

"Yeah she is," Inuyasha agreed. "And she doesn't need you coddling her."

"Coddling? I am not coddling her!" Kagome snapped. "You don't even know Sango!"

That was true enough. Inuyasha didn't really know her. He didn't know her likes or dislikes, didn't know her biggest fears, or her moments of triumph. What Inuyasha did know was a warrior's spirit, which Sango had in spades, wouldn't want to be comforted after being slapped in the face with the fact that her abilities, and by extension Sango herself, were insignificant.

No, Sango wouldn't want comfort right now. She'd want to break something out of sheer frustration, and Kagome with her good intentions would make herself the target.

Jak popped up in the doorway. "Ayame!"

Ayame winced at the sound of his voice. Sending the human a dirty look, she said, "What do you want?"

"Can you let Eyes know I'll be taking the scenic route to hunting jewel shards?" he asked cheerfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shippo asked. "You're supposed to be helping us."

Inuyasha glared suspiciously at the human. Who was this guy anyway?

Jak waved a hand airily. "In the long run I will be. But you see, I've agreed to be Miss Sango's teacher, and that takes precedence in my book."

"Her teacher?" Kagome demanded. "What exactly will you be teaching her?"

Jak smiled brightly. "Why, how to kill yokai. What else?"

* * *

AN: I've noticed some reviewers still seem confused about who the Hunters are. If you're confused, I'll refer you back to chapter seven where Cathleen explains they are an elite group of fighters that work solely for the President of the United States, and no one but former Presidents (and the Queen or King of England) know that they exist. They are human, but some have unique abilities.

Also, I've gone back and edited a minor plot hole that, while not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, was glaringly obvious. Seriously, how did no one call me on it the first time I posted this?


End file.
